‘ Violence against women up’
LAHORE: Violence against women has increased by 11 per cent in Punjab during the first six months of the calendar year compared with the corresponding period last year, says an Aurat Foundation’s study.
Foundation’s violence against women watch group member ex-MPA Misbah Kokab, addressing a news conference here on Thursday, said no concrete steps had been taken to stop violation of women’s fundamental rights to life, security and freedom to make independent choices in private and public arenas.
The foundation released its first bi-annual report on violence against women. Joint Action Committee convener Shahtaj Qizilbash, human rights activist Abdulah Malik, Nabeela Shaheen and Abid Ali were also present on the occasion.
The former MPA said the foundation had compiled the report in collaboration with Violence Against Women (VAW) Watch Group titled “Situation of violence against women in Punjab” under its programme and data monitoring (on violence against women). The report highlighted first 12 districts in which violence against women was the highest. It said Lahore with 458 violations was observed the most aggressive city against women, followed by Faisalabad 393, Sargodha 161, Sheikhupura 157, Rawalpindi 139, Okara 134, Kasur 116, Sialkot 114, Sahiwal 88, Gujranwala 87, Jhang 76 and Multan with reported cases of 71.
According to the report, there were 2,690 reported cases of violence against women in which 2,909 women and girls had been victimised. As many as 158 men and children were also victimised and a total of 3,066 people had been victimised in 36 districts of Punjab from Jan 1, 2010 to June 30.
Geographically and FIR status-wise, the report said there were 1,141 cases reported in urban localities and 1,546 in rural areas. FIR status-wise, 2,353 cases were filed with respective police stations out of 2690 cases while 96 were not registered and 241 cases had no information about registration.
According to marital status, of 3,066 victims, 1,535 were unmarried and 1,217 married. Similarly 48 were widows, 39 divorcees and 227 had no information about their marital status. Similarly age-wise, 467 of the victims were under 18 years of age and 185 females in the age group of 19-36.
According to the report, the accused were close relatives, including husband, father, brother, cousin, in-laws, influential of areas, police and neighbours.
The data was compiled from local and regional newspapers, individuals and shelter homes.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/30/2010
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