Trail of abuse

Children who are sexually abused often suffer in silence. The abuse goes on for years and innocent victims often don’t gather courage to seek help or to speak out. Often, these children are sexually abused by people they know. That person might be a family member or a neighbour or a friend’s friend. Most of the times, victims don’t come forward at all. It is mainly because people in our society don’t want to talk about the issue. Children who share their stories are often directed to not talk about the incident. Although the rapid increase in child abuse cases is unfortunate, what is more saddening is the fact that people are in a state of denial. We need to acknowledge the matter and work collectively to fight it. Experiencing abuse in childhood has adverse effects. Children are the assets of our society. It is important to create a safe environment for children. Children who have experienced any sort of abuse should be encouraged to share their story and parents and trained child psychologists should respond to the children’s concerns.

It is important to conduct awareness programmes at schools to let children know how they can prevent child abuse. In Pakistan alone, a total of 3,768 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in 2015. This loosely meant that a total of 10 instances of child abuse took place each day. The figure also shows an increase of seven percent from the previous year (2014). It is the responsibility of the entire society to fight the issue.

Maria Sadriwala

Karachi