Children sexually abused on Pakistan’s streets

[relativiti]

KARACHI: Nadeem knows first hand the misery of life on the streets. Sexually assaulted as a child, he became a pimp of young boys —the only way he knew how to survive as a member of Pakistan’s underclass.

He says he was 12 years old when he was attacked. Since then, he has been dragged into a vicious cycle of horrifying abuse allegedly aided and abetted by police and which few are willing to confront in the Muslim country.

“It was just the third night I slept on a street when a policeman picked me up and did bad things to me. I cried a lot but no one came to help me,” Nadeem, now 17, told AFP.

He was sexually assaulted for a second time by the leader of a street gang, who then forced Nadeem to join the 17 other children in his gang.

By 14 he was a full-time sex worker. His pimp gave him a mobile phone to keep in contact with clients.

According to charities which work to protect street children in Pakistan, up to 90 per cent are sexually abused on the first night that they sleep rough and 60 per cent accuse police of sexually abusing them.

“Children on the street are beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, and sometimes killed,” said Rana Asif Habib, head of the Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF).

“Police (should) protect people. When policemen are themselves involved in molesting children, who will protect them?” he asks.

“What we have gathered in our research is that policemen make up more than 60 per cent of those who physically torment, sexually harass street children,”said Anwer Kazmi of the Edhi Foundation, the country’s largest charity.

Karachi is home to Pakistan’s biggest community of street children —tens of thousands of victims of domestic violence and broken homes, drugs and crime, in the steamy port city.

More than 170,000 street children live on the streets across the country.

Illiterate, uneducated and most without family, the children can grow into seasoned criminals, drug addicts or fall prey to militancy.

When Nadeem turned 16, he tried to escape. He received counselling from a charity and was taught photography. He tried to make it his profession.

“I was happy with my work, but a year ago, a policeman put me in the lockup on a false charge, confiscated my camera and abused me sexually,” he said. The experience turned him against the world.

“I decided to become stronger. Now I have my own gang and many influential people are my clients. No one can touch me now.”Nadeem says he acts as a pimp to 10 teenage sex workers aged 14-18, taking a sizeable cut of whatever the boys in earn.

“Half an hour after finishing with one client I get another call and I forget all about wanting a respectable life.”

Nadeem lives on a street in the downtown Saddar neighbourhood, but rents a room in a cheap hotel when he has surplus cash. He confesses that he too sexually assaulted a child.

“He insulted me and my family so I told him he had it coming. So I grabbed him and gave it to him. I still remember that night. I haven’t done that to anyone else since then and I don’t want to.”

Rizwan is a fisherman’s son. He insists he is 12, but he looks much younger. He left home three years ago because his family beat him and says he was abused by police. IHDF fears he too will be dragged into the sex industry.

“The police tried to make me do bad things six or seven times but I managed to get away,” he said.

“But one day, one policeman took me by force, put a cloth over my mouth and took me to a place where he did bad things.”

Shaukat Hussain, head of police in Karachi’s southern district where many street children live, said any officers found guilty would be punished, but denied the force was anything like as culpable as reported.

“There are black sheep in our department who are involved in such acts. But we punish anyone whose crime comes to surface and is proved,” he told AFP.

“The number of policemen who are involved in such acts is far less than what is being claimed by the media and NGOs,” he added.

Pakistan offers little protection to vulnerable children. “A draft bill for child protection has been pending with the interior ministry for two years,” a senior official of the human rights ministry told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media.

The bill is designed to tighten the laws protecting children, bringing them in line with international conventions, doing more to help children in difficulty and bringing police and other offenders to book for abusing minors.

“There is a visible lack of interest on the part of the government on this issue… despite our constant pursuits,” said the ministry official.

One former police official told AFP that he organised seminars to sensitise police on how to treat street children four years ago, but that the programme was abruptly abandoned when he retired

Children sexually abused on Pakistan’s streets | | DAWN.COM

 

[Respect4Respect01]

wow you are a great indian today, you just posted a anti Pakistani article.

look this problem is not only Pakistan but in whole fking stupid world. there are more children on streets in indian than Pakistan,


but i never understood how some people will post ANYTHING to degrade another country, are we even humans now?

---------- Post added at 11:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------

After a brilliant 16-year-old New Delhi girl repeatedly complained last month that her mathematics teacher was “touching and fondling her private parts,” the upshot was a long way from what anybody bargained for. When the girl’s parents complained, the principal called them “regressive” and blamed them for damaging the school’s reputation. The girl now stays at home to help cook and clean, her school bag lying in a locked cupboard, her scholastic career over.


The story of the girl, referred to only as Seema, is depressingly familiar, resonating across large parts of India, where abuse is a a startling everyday reality for as many as half of the country’s children, according to a just-released 13-state National Study on Child Sexual Abuse conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and Save The Children.


It is a long-hidden issue that India is finally beginning to wrestle with. The government moved recently to establish a National Commission for Protection of Children's Rights and plans are afoot to present an Offences Against Children (Prevention) Bill in the Parliament. The proposed document has specific sections dealing with various crimes against children, including sale/transfer, sexual assault, sexual/physical/emotional abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, child pornography, grooming for sexual purpose, incest, corporal punishment, bullying and economic exploitation.


The scale of abuse, according to the national study, is far worse than anybody had thought. It reports that 69 per cent of all Indian children are victims of physical, mental or emotional abuse, with New Delhi’s children facing an astounding abuse rate of 83.12 percent.


The survey, which involved interviews with 12,447 children, also highlights that it is usually family members (89 percent) who perpetrate such crimes and that more boys face physical abuse (72.61) than girls (65 per cent). Overall, Indian children were found to be victims of a slew of sexual crimes -- rape, sodomy, exposure to pornographic material, fondling, forcible kissing and sexual advances, among others.


The study also notes that child sexual abuse in India begins as early as five, ratchets up dramatically during pre-pubescence and peaks at 12 to 16 years. Some 21 percent of respondents acknowledged experiencing severe sexual abuse like rape, sodomy, fondling or exposure to pornographic material. Ironically, 71 per cent of sexual assault cases in India go unreported.


Nor is the study an aberration. As long ago as the mid 1990s, Samvada, a non-governmental organization in Karnataka, surveyed girls aged 15 to 21 from 11 schools and reported that 47 percent of the respondents were molested or experienced sexual overtures, 15 percent of them under the age of 10. Another 15 percent said they had experienced serious forms of sexual abuse including rape – 31 percent of that group were under the age of 10 when the abuses took place.


India is home to more than 375 million children, comprising nearly 40 percent of the country’s population, the largest number of minors in any country in the world. Despite its ethos of non-violence, tolerance, spirituality and a new trillion-dollar economy, India hosts the world's largest number of sexually abused children, at a far higher rate than any other country. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in every four girls and one in every seven boys in the world are sexually abused, hardly encouraging, but still far below India’s totals.


Worse, child abuse is one of the least documented violations in the country, records author Grace Poore in the book, The Children We Sacrifice, which deals with the wide prevalence of child sexual abuse in India.


The reasons are manifold. In India, much like the rest of Asia, children are expected to respect and obey authority figures such as teachers, guidance counselors and principals and not question their actions. Rebellion is perceived as a sign of a bad upbringing. This sensibility perpetuates a culture of abuse by encouraging sexual predators.


Also, Indian adults often exercise a near-feudal hold over their children, demanding complete and unquestioned obedience. A culture of silence and shame also swirls around cases of sexual violence against children. Unsurprisingly, the notion of shame is the single largest culprit in perpetuating sexual violence against India’s children.


Ironically, despite the magnitude of the problem, Indian courts offer little panacea to victims. In fact the only legal recourse available to such victims is the extensions of “rape laws”, which apply to women and are stretched to apply to children as well.


But, as authorities point out, rape laws only recognize sexual crimes involving “penile penetration” and are totally dependent on medical evidence. Such evidence is difficult to procure as abuse is usually not one isolated case but a whole series of them. It may even involve episodes in which the offender doesn’t even touch the victim. Worse, the sexual molestation law covers all sexual offences “that outrage the victim’s modesty,” other than penetration. However, these two are bailable offences and only demand punishment of a maximum of two years in jail and/or a fine of few thousand rupees.


Though this law can be used in child sexual abuse cases, its reference to “unusual sexual offences” makes it difficult for child victims to use this option as a legal remedy. Since the definition of sexual abuse is nebulous, victims are largely at the mercy of the court’s discretion. On rare cases when abusers are booked after a cumbersome legal procedure, India’s conviction rate is so abysmal (despite the country’s sophisticated and complex set of laws), it seems like a Pyrrhic victory.


Apart from the legal dimension, child sexual abuse also has pronouncedly psychological and emotional elements. Worldwide surveys point out that such abuse negatively impacts a child’s physical, emotional and mental well-being, leading to severe behavioral and psychiatric disorders. Suicidal tendencies and drug abuse are common long-term effects.


A World Health Organization survey also points out that there is an unambiguous behavioral and emotional pattern in the abused. Usually the child hardly talks about the incident. And, even if he or she does, no one takes it seriously. That in turn triggers feelings of self doubt and guilt, exacerbating the child’s feeling that it is his or her fault. As the child matures, compulsive behavior reinforces this guilt. Small wonder that many adult sexual problems, according to psychoanalysts, trace their provenance to childhood abuse.


Charol Shakeshaft, a statistics professor in the School of Education and Allied Human Services at Hofstra University, New York, notes in her report, “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature,” that “child sexual abusers, including educators and priests, use similar patterns of ‘grooming practices’ to break down a child's defenses. Often popular and well-regarded in their field, abusers engage in ‘systematic and premeditated grooming’ where they lavish special treatment on their intended victim buying presents or sharing secrets, for example and then advance to pornography.”


Where then, does the solution lie? Educating and enlightening kids about such issues, helping them distinguish between “good” and “bad” touch, is a partial answer, authorities say. Children also ought to be made aware of impulsive decisions they may make under pressure from peers, bullies and abusers. Sex education in schools is also productive. The Netherlands, a country where teenage pregnancy rates plummeted from 60 per cent to about 25 per cent through aggressive sex information campaigns in schools, is an example.


However, in India the issue of sexual abuse is still wedged between legal and policy commitments to children on the one hand, and the fallout of globalization on the other. A nationwide furor resulted after the government’s recent decision to introduce sex education in schools. The subject has divided opinion between camps who felt such a step would lead to unnecessary experimentation by curious teenagers and others who believed it would help whittle down cases of sexual abuse by creating widespread awareness.


In the meantime, with child sexual abuse attracting so much scrutiny and public debate, the government has the added impetus to adopt strong and unequivocal measures to contain such crimes. For a country with nearly 40 per cent of its populace comprised of children, such measures are overdue.

Asia Sentinel - Hidden Darkness: Child Sexual Abuse in India

---------- Post added at 11:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:24 AM ----------

Over 53% children face sexual abuse: Survey
TNN Apr 10, 2007, 12.00am IST

NEW DELHI: In a shocking revelation, a government commissioned survey has found that more than 53% of children in India are subjected to sexual abuse, but most don't report the assaults to anyone.

The survey, released on Monday and which covered different forms of child abuse — physical, sexual and emotional — as well as female child neglect, found that two out of every three children have been physically abused.

Parents and relatives, persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility were mostly found to be the perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the country. According to the women and child development ministry-sponsored report, which assumes greater significance in the backdrop of the Nithari killings that brought into focus the issue of children's safety, those in the age group of 5-12 years reported higher levels of abuse.

While releasing the survey, women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury said, "Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. The ministry is working on a new law for protection of children's rights by clearly specifying offences against children and stiffening punishments."

The survey, carried out across 13 states and with a sample size of 12,447, revealed that 53.22% of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi reporting the highest percentage of such incidents. In 50% of child abuse cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone.

The survey, sponsored by WCD ministry and carried out by the NGO Prayas in association with Unicef and Save the Children, found that over 50% children were subjected to one or the other form of physical abuse and more boys than girls were abused physically. The first-ever survey on child abuse in the country disclosed that nearly 65% of schoolchildren reported facing corporal punishment — beatings by teachers — mostly in government schools.

Of children physically abused in families, in 88.6% of the cases, it was the parents who were the perpetrators. More than 50% had been sexually abused in ways that ranged from severe — such as rape or fondling — to milder forms of molestation that included forcible kissing.

The study also interviewed 2,324 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, almost half of whom reported being physically or sexually abused as children. When it comes to emotional abuse, every second child was subjected to emotional assault and in 83% of the cases, parents were the abusers.

Over 53% children face sexual abuse: Survey - Times Of India

---------- Post added at 11:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 AM ----------

I POSTED THAT FOR SOCIAL AWARENESS AND DONT THINK THAT IS ANTI INDIA, PEACE.

 

[Dalai Lama]

wow you are a great indian today, you just posted a anti Pakistani article.

look this problem is not only Pakistan but in whole fking stupid world. there are more children on streets in indian than Pakistan,


but i never understood how some people will post ANYTHING to degrade another country, are we even humans now?

- Tries to take moral higher ground.
- Indulges in exactly what he claims to vehemently oppose.
- Fails.

 

[relativiti]

Look mister I have no interest in what happens inside pakistan or what pakistanis do to pakistanis it would be the last thing i wish to occupy my time with
In fact this is the first time i entered this section.... found a recent article and posted...as simple as that
Don't think i'm like your beloved members like SOCOM or JANA who take deep interest in the rape statistics of india........

 

[lem34]

Come on guys this is not fair there are evil people in all countries doing wrong. They do not reflect on all of us.

 

[xTra]

wow you are a great indian today, you just posted a anti Pakistani article.

look this problem is not only Pakistan but in whole fking stupid world. there are more children on streets in indian than Pakistan,


but i never understood how some people will post ANYTHING to degrade another country, are we even humans now?

---------- Post added at 11:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------

And you did the the same thing, How are you different from OP.

Such things happens in every part of world.

 

[Dalai Lama]

Come on guys this is not fair there are evil people in all countries doing wrong. They do not reflect on all of us.

No, Indians are the "worstest" and "evillest" I tell you.

 

[lem34]

No Indians are the "worstest" and "evillest" I tell you.

Well you would know. I did think that the movie slumdog was an attempt to malign india

 

[Dalai Lama]

Well you would know. I did think that the movie slumdog was an attempt to malign india

Yeah, that Danny Boyle dude. He found out how evil we are so he went and made 'Slumdog Millionaire' to piss us off!

 

[ARSENAL6]

this is the first time that an indian has spoken the truth and without trolling

Indiand take note.

 

[Dalai Lama]

this is the first time that an indian has spoken the truth and without trolling

Indiand take note.

Yeah man. I'm always honest about how evil we are. In fact I'm proud of it.

Guess what else I'm honest about?







My flags.

 

[Respect4Respect01]

- Tries to take moral higher ground.
- Indulges in exactly what he claims to vehemently oppose.
- Fails.

failed reply because i didnt understand a thing.

---------- Post added at 07:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 PM ----------

Yeah man. I'm always honest about how evil we are. In fact I'm proud of it.

Guess what else I'm honest about?







My flags.

be honest about your avatar too, is that really you lol? -_-

 

[pak-marine]

Here is some MORE sick people existing in our society


Teen Hindu escapes 2-year forced sex work nightmare

By Samia Saleem
Published: August 25, 2011



KARACHI: Kidnapped and forced into sex work at the age of 12 years, N, a Hindu girl, thought it was a nightmare that would never end.
Duped by a man named Younus who was welcomed into the family home in Teen Hatti as an old friend, N and her family never suspected that a man who showered attention and presents on them would do such a thing. N claims that he would drop by their house quite often and one day when she was alone he showed up with his wife and lured her to their house in Korangi.
What followed remained a mystery for two years till August 23 – the day she escaped.
An unlatched door led N, now 14 years old, to freedom from the brothel in Nasir colony run by Younus, his wife and son Rehman. She was forced to work as a sex worker along with three young girls, including two other Hindu girls, who escaped with her.
N claimed that one of the girls had been abducted before her while the other two were brought in after her. She was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a medical examination where the medico-legal officer said that N’s results showed that she had routine sexual intercourse. The officer added that she had been given a contraceptive injection every two months to avoid a pregnancy.
N said that she was forced to do what her captors said, as they had drugged her. She told The Express Tribune that sometimes she had two to three visitors per night and the family charged them Rs1,500 to Rs2,000 per person.
Cursing her time at the brothel, N added that Younus and his son sexually abused her and the other girls as well.
Talking about the girls who had escaped with her, N explained that they hired a rickshaw and instructed the driver to head towards a main road. She added that when they recognised the area, she dropped off the girls and went to her parent’s house in Teen Hatti. “Her family immediately contacted Roshni Helpline, a child rights non-government organisation (NGO) that had been following the case for two years,” said the NGO’s Mohammad Ali.
Ali told The Express Tribune that a neighbour caught Rehman trying to stop one of the girls from escaping.
In his statement in front of the authorities, Rehman admitted that his family had been involved in the business and they targeted young girls from different minorities. “Their backgrounds were not influential so there was little that they could do once their daughter was abducted,” he said. “The brothel ran unnoticed in a small area usually inhabited by labourers.”
While Younus and his wife are still at large, the investigating officer ASI Rana Nisar from the Supermarket police station in Liaquatabad claimed that Rehman’s statement had provided leads to his parent’s whereabouts. He added that they would conduct another raid to find out more.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2011.

 

[Respect4Respect01]

And you did the the same thing, How are you different from OP.

Such things happens in every part of world.

i also said that was for social awareness.

 

[Mo12]

Trolls, stick to topic and dont bring in Indian, Chinese or Mars kids into this thread, this thread is about Pakistan young kids.

Stop trolling.