Pakistan has become a country where sexual abuse is the most ubiquitous form of violence against children and women. Sexual exploitation of children and women is a long-standing and unbridled iniquity that haunts our society. The evil reminds us that we have failed to safeguard our most vulnerable citizens for a long time.
A very few of the painful and hair-raising incidents of sexual abuse against females that occurred in 2020’s last two months must be mentioned here. In December, just three days after her marriage, a woman was gang-raped in the presence of her in-laws in the Farooqabad area of Punjab’s Sheikhupura district. A young girl was gang-raped in Larkana district of Sindh. In November, six girls of 5 to 15 years of age were raped in Kasur district’s Sarai Mughal village. A woman and her four-year-old daughter were allegedly subjected to rape for three days in the Kashmore district of Sindh.
The barbarous and degrading actions of sexual abuse occur very frequently in Pakistan’s society with not even slight hesitation or fear of punishment. These activities, which can never be regarded as normal and socially acceptable, are the worst case of human rights violation. Such unkind deeds are the evidence of the existence of moral degradation, barbarity and viciousness.
Globally, the age at which a person may give effective and full consent to marriage is generally set between 12 to 18 years. Pakistan under the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 has set the age 16 for girls and 18 for boys to give consent to marriage. While Sindh, under the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013, sets 18 years of age for both genders.
Forcible sexual relations or sexual intercourse with a person under the age of consent is regarded as a statutory rape. The definition shows that child marriage is a statutory rape. Regrettably, in Pakistan, statutory rape, not unlike most countries across the world, is enormously pervasive. UNICEF reported that 21 percent of girls are married under the age of 18 and 3 percent before 15. Victims of statutory rape experience adverse long term psychological effects and physical mutilation which include sexually transmitted diseases.
However, the perpetrators of this heinous crime deserve to be awarded stringent and harsh punishment commensurate with their inhuman and monstrous activities. It will help reduce the sexual abuse incidence in the country. To ensure the administration of justice to victims of the heinous crime, there is a desperate need to take concrete measures for the effective implementation of punishments awarded to sexual abusers under Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The law has introduced imprisonment for 10 to 25 years for rape and hanging or life imprisonment for gang-rape.
It shows that in Pakistan the situation for children and women has become startling and precarious as the horrific crimes against them have become increasingly commonplace. They have been molested, raped and murdered by beasts roaming around freely in the garb of human beings. Sahil, a local NGO, revealed that around 2,846 cases of rape and sexual abuse in 2018 and 3,832 in 2019 were reported across Pakistan. In the first six months of 2020, around 1489 children were sexually abused. In reality, for the state, protection of children and women has become a superhuman task. All this has created a sense of fear and a feeling of constant horror among children, women and their families. They could not sleep with ease and solace.
The fact is that survivors of rape can experience strenuous and agonizing sentiments and feelings. With a slight variation, every survivor reacts to disturbing incidents. The survivors face unpleasant effects which include flashbacks, ephialtes, intense disquietude, long-lasting dejection and despondence. They face the lack of interest in activities they enjoyed previously and focus on their work and schooling. They develop a sense of deep distrust of others and think that the world is not a safe place to live.
The science of psychology terms rape a form of torture. Rape survivors develop feelings of shame, indignity, fear and bewilderment. They feel overwhelmingly vulnerable to sexual attackers. Besides, in most cases, victims of rape always face the threats of ostracism or killing by family members to safeguard so called honour.
Shockingly, police have been found reluctant to register most rape and gang-rape cases and arrest the accused. After stories of these painful incidents go viral on the social, print and electronic media, and people take to the streets to protest against the incidents, police per force lodge the cases and bring about some arrests. This behaviour of the force is the result of the existence of inefficiency and corruption, and involvement of influential people in the cases.
The cases of rapes and gang rapes should be dealt in special courts established under the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Ordinance, 2020, for speedy trials of accused rapists. Punishment of chemical castration that the Ordinance, 2020 introduces for rapists is inadequate. However, the perpetrators of this heinous crime deserve to be awarded stringent and harsh punishment commensurate with their inhuman and monstrous activities. It will help reduce the sexual abuse incidence in the country.
To ensure the administration of justice to victims of the heinous crime, there is a desperate need to take concrete measures for the effective implementation of punishments awarded to sexual abusers under Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The law has introduced imprisonment for 10 to 25 years for rape and hanging or life imprisonment for gang-rape.
The writer is a freelance columnist
