Nearly 11 children suffered reported abuse every day in Pakistan from January to June 2026, as Sahil’s Cruel Numbers report records 1,914 cases amid persistent underreporting and systemic gaps.
Pakistan recorded 1,914 cases of child abuse in the first half of 2026 – an average of nearly 11 children every day – according to the latest Six Months Cruel Numbers report by Sahil, a non-profit that has monitored violence against children since 1996. The figure marks a slight dip from the 1,956 cases logged in the same period the previous year, yet it underscores a crisis that shows little sign of easing.
The data, drawn from 81 English, Urdu and regional newspapers across all four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan, captures only what reaches the press. Experts and the organisation itself repeatedly stress that the true scale is far higher because of stigma, fear of family dishonour, and weak institutional responses.
Sexual Abuse Dominates the Numbers
Of the 1,914 cases, 1,015 involved child sexual abuse. Abduction accounted for 558, missing children for 101, child marriages for 35, and pornography linked to sexual abuse for 98. In a particularly distressing category, 49 infants were found abandoned by the roadside.
Girls made up 58 per cent of the victims and boys 42 per cent. The pattern reversed in pornography cases, where boys comprised 59 per cent of victims. Children aged 11 to 15 were the most vulnerable group, with 598 cases – roughly 31 per cent of the total – followed by those aged 16-18 (356 cases) and 6-10 (329 cases). Ninety-five cases involved children aged five or under; in 487 instances the victim’s age was not reported.
Abduction was the single largest crime category at 29 per cent, closely followed by rape and sodomy combined at 28 per cent. Many cases involved combinations of offences – abduction with rape, gang rape, incest or child marriage.
Abusers Are Often Known – and Close to Home
In 43 per cent of cases, the abuser was someone known to the child or family – an acquaintance, relative, father, uncle, religious teacher or neighbour. Strangers accounted for 34 per cent; the relationship was unspecified in the rest. Nearly half of all incidents (45 per cent) took place in the victim’s own home, 18 per cent at the abuser’s residence, and only 3 per cent in open fields.
These patterns reinforce what child-protection advocates have long argued: most abuse occurs inside circles of trust, making detection and reporting especially difficult.
Punjab Bears the Heaviest Burden
Punjab accounted for 80 per cent of reported cases, Sindh 15 per cent, and the remaining 5 per cent from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, the federal capital, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan combined. Ten districts stood out as particularly vulnerable: Faisalabad recorded 337 cases, Multan 185, Lahore 121, Gujranwala 111, Kasur 110, Rahim Yar Khan 97, Rawalpindi 78, Vehari 70, Sialkot 64 and Toba Tek Singh 61. Urban areas reported 57 per cent of cases; rural areas 43 per cent.
Police registered 89 per cent of the cases – a relatively high formal-reporting rate that Sahil views as a modest positive. Still, seven cases remained unregistered and in one instance police reportedly refused to lodge a complaint.
A Long-Standing Emergency
Sahil’s full-year figures paint a consistent picture of crisis. In 2025 the organisation recorded 3,630 cases – an 8 per cent rise on 2024 – averaging more than nine children abused daily. Earlier years show similar or higher numbers: 3,364 in 2024 and over 4,000 in both 2022 and 2023. Between 2022 and 2025 alone, media reports captured more than 15,000 cases of child sexual abuse.
These numbers reflect only what newspapers publish. Official police data and civil-society estimates suggest the actual incidence is substantially higher. Cultural taboos, family honour codes, fear of social stigma, and pressure to settle cases privately keep many victims silent – especially when the perpetrator is a relative or community figure. Boys’ victimisation is particularly under-acknowledged.
Laws Exist, Implementation Lags
Pakistan has enacted progressive legislation, including the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act 2020 (named after six-year-old Zainab Ansari, abducted, raped and murdered in Kasur in 2018), the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018, and amendments strengthening penalties for sexual offences against children. Yet implementation remains fragmentary.
The Zainab Alert agency, intended to issue rapid public alerts and coordinate recovery of missing children, has faced persistent capacity, coordination and resource problems more than five years after the law’s passage. Courts have repeatedly sought explanations for the non-notification of rules and the limited operational readiness of the system. Child-protection mechanisms vary widely across provinces, data systems remain uncoordinated, and conviction rates stay low.
Poverty, limited access to education, weak social-safety nets and uneven policing compound the vulnerability of children, particularly in densely populated districts of Punjab that repeatedly top the statistics.
Beyond the Statistics
Sahil, which provides free legal aid and counselling alongside its monitoring work, emphasises that media-based tallies are only the visible tip of the problem. United Nations experts and local organisations agree that most intra-family and community abuse never reaches newspapers or police stations.
The modest decline in the first half of 2026 offers no grounds for complacency, Sahil says. The concentration of cases in a handful of Punjab districts, the dominance of known perpetrators, and the continued high volume of sexual offences point to structural failures that laws on paper have not yet closed.
Until reporting becomes safer, investigations more professional, courts faster, and community attitudes more protective of children rather than family reputation, the daily average of nearly 11 reported victims will remain a grim understatement of a deeper national emergency, Sahil says.
