Zubair Qureshi
Women and children in Pakistan continue to face harassment, violence and subjugation, says a report titled ‘Tracking Numbers: State of violence against women and children’ issued by Sustainable Social Development Organization.
According to the report, as many as 6,754 women were kidnapped and 1,890 raped during the first six months of the current year.
In Punjab alone, 3,721 cases of violence against women were registered during the said period, however, the media reported much less cases in this regard, the report claims.
Giving details, it says, in Islamabad 34 women rape cases were registered while in Punjab 752 cases of child abuse were registered, however according to the SSDO only 27 cases were highlighted in media.
The report further says out of 163 cases registered in Islamabad about kidnapping of women only 26 cases were reported in the media.
The report deliberates on the plight of women and children while highlighting the everyday risks of safety, security and rights violations being faced by them these days.
It has been highlighted that out of 3,721 case of violence against women registered in Punjab only 938 cases were reported in mainstream media.
The report is based on information provided by mainstream English and Urdu print media and through access to official registered cases by using Right to Information (RTI) laws.
For collection of information under this research report, a set of eight indicators were developed; which were relatively easy to update periodically.
Out of these eight indicators, three indicators such as child abuse, child labour and child marriages relate to children while five indicators such as domestic violence, violence against women, harassment of women at workplace, rape of women and kidnapping of women.
SSDO Director Shahid Jatoi said that while violence against women and children was rampant in Punjab but the lack of proper space in media over the subject was a more alarming trend.
“The less reporting in the media compared to the official data suggests lack of attention over such issues by the media over the alarming situation of human rights violations of women and children in Punjab and ICT,” Jatoi added.
