In 2025, Pakistan reported 3,630 cases of child abuse, an 8 per cent increase from the previous year, according to Sahil, an Islamabad-based non-profit monitoring violence against children and women.
“In the year 2025, a total number of 3,630 child abuse cases have been reported in 81 different newspapers,” the organisation said.
Breaking it down, this means more than 9 children were abused every day last year. Out of the total victims, 1,924 were girls, 1,625 were boys, and 116 were newborn babies.
The most common forms of abuse were abduction (1,107 cases), sodomy (596), and rape (522).
Other cases included missing children (365), attempted rape (195), attempted sodomy (141), gang sodomy (130), gang rape (108), murder after sexual abuse (58), and child marriage (53).
Children aged 11 to 15 were most at risk, with more boys than girls affected. Most abuse cases involved acquaintances.
By region, Punjab reported 73 per cent of child abuse cases, followed by Sindh (21 per cent), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (4 per cent), and the rest (2 per cent) from Balochistan, federal areas, PoK, and Gilgit-Baltistan combined. Sahil noted that 82 per cent of these cases were registered with police.
Sahil also reported 7,071 cases of violence against women (GBV) in 2025, a 34 per cent increase from the previous year. That is about 19 cases per day. The largest category was murder, with 1,546 cases, followed by 1,345 abductions and 1,169 cases of torture.
There were 877 reported rapes, 680 suicides, 449 cases of injury, 316 cases of harassment, 284 honour killings, and 41 acid attacks.
Among the abusers, 32 per cent were acquaintances, 18 per cent were strangers, and 12 per cent were husbands, while in 20 per cent of cases the abuser was not identified.
Punjab again reported the highest number of cases at 78 per cent, followed by Sindh with 14 per cent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 6 per cent, and the remaining 2 per cent from other regions.
Sahil has been working on child protection and preventing sexual abuse since 1996, the organisation said.