Minority Rights Group Warns Of Rising Violence Against Children Across Pakistan | World News

A leading minority rights organization on Thursday expressed serious concerns over the newly released national fact sheet documenting 5,097 cases of violence against children (VAC) across Pakistan in the first six months of 2025.

According to Voice of Minority Pakistan (VOPM), the document does not just present numbers; exposes a system that fails to see, protect and dispense justice for its youngest citizens, and sends a chilling reminder of how unsafe childhood remains in Pakistan.

The rights body said the fact sheet was based on data obtained by Right to Information (RTI) through requests to police departments in Pakistan’s provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan) and the federal capital Islamabad. It documented nine major forms of abuse, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, child pornography, murder or murder, kidnapping, child marriage, child labor, child begging, and human trafficking.

“Yet even this alarming picture is incomplete. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not provide data, leaving a huge gap in the national assessment. This omission is not just a technical flaw; it symbolizes a broader failure to map, measure and address violence against children as an urgent priority,” VOPM said.

According to the findings, the highest number of child-related crimes were recorded in Punjab, while Sindh showed particularly high numbers of sexual abuse, kidnapping and child labour, exposing entrenched criminal networks and the vulnerability of children in urban and urban slums.

“On paper, Balochistan’s numbers look smaller. In reality, the province can be one of the most dangerous places for children due to weak police, large distances, conservative social norms and underreporting due to fear of speaking out,” VOPM said.

“Islamabad presents a more urban profile: cases of child pornography, sexual violence and kidnapping are more reported, but cases of child labor or begging are fewer. These trends suggest that where systems are in place to record certain crimes, more of them occur not because other forms of violence do not exist, but because they remain hidden.”

The rights body emphasized that the lack of data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, poor detail from Balochistan and the inability of police departments to provide standard information point to the harsh reality that Pakistan still does not have a centralized, reliable national mechanism to track violence against children.

“Lack of information is itself a form of violence; it erases children from their own painful stories,” VOPM emphasized.