Violence against women rising in Punjab province of Pakistan: Report

Lahore [Pakistan], December 8 (AF): Criminal activities against women in Punjab province of Pakistan have skyrocketed with a surge in sexual crimes by 16 per cent in 2021, a Gender Parity Report by Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) revealed on Thursday.
As per the report, cases of kidnapping climbed 25 per cent, those of assault by 47 per cent, those of acid burning by 18 per cent and honour killing by 17 per cent, News International reported.
In Punjab, the VAW acquittal rate in 2021 was 95 per cent. The PSCA Women Safety Application’s overall active user base climbed by 265 per cent.
There are 60.8 million men and 59.2 million women living in Pakistan’s Punjab, respectively. Men are more likely than women to own a mobile phone (64.3 pc versus 25.3 pc), and men are more likely than women to utilise the internet (24 pc versus 15.3 pc). The number of births registered climbed from 1.32 million in 2020 to 1.37 million in 2021, while the number of deaths registered increased from 540,681 in 2020 to 577,629 in 2021.
Only 7 pc of women have a licence to drive, 0.04 pc have a licence to ride a bike and only 1.7 pc possess a vehicle. Only 8.2 million women own their own land compared to 17.8 million men who do.

As per media reports, of the total 131 reported cases of kidnapping in the country, 96 were from Punjab province. Sindh reported 23 cases, followed by 11 from KP and one from Islamabad. No cases of kidnapping were reported from Balochistan.
Rape cases were the second most reported in the media. Out of the total of 57 cases, Punjab reported the highest of 38 cases, while Sindh reported 13 followed by 3 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2 cases from Islamabad. Only one case was reported from Balochistan, The News International reported.
Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that Pakistan’s Global Gender Gap Index has worsened over time. In 2017, Pakistan ranked 143, slipping to 148 in 2018.
According to the last year’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021’, Pakistan ranked 153 out of 156 countries on the gender parity index, that is, among the last four.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)’s recent report said that in Pakistan, at least 11 rape cases are reported daily with over 22,000 such incidents reported to police in the last six years (2015-21). (AF)