There is a saying that poverty is the source of corruption in the present era. Which creates negative impressions in human minds, based on which he often makes wrong decisions. In our society, where 80% of the population lives below the poverty line. These conditions have increased mental stress due to which there has been an increase in domestic violence.
It has been observed that the basis of these disputes between husband and wife is often the increase in household expenses which are not met, which leads to violence. In addition, it has become difficult for women to survive in the environment affected by folk the tribal system of the country. If a woman is lucky enough to get an education and get a job, then she faces various threats from the men there, including sexual and physical violence that can harm any woman’s life.
Recently, the Law and Justice Commission report has been released which revealed the increase in cases of gender violence in the country which indicates that people have now come out of the fear of the society. Now the victims has started raising their voice against the abuses, otherwise thirty years ago most of the issues were suppressed. It was not customary to report atrocities on women in particular.
According to the Law and Justice Commission, the rate of punishment of the accused involved in gender crimes is only 5%. According to the report, pending cases of gender violence in the courts have also started to increase. In 2023, the pending cases of gender-based violence increased from 21,891 to 39,665.
The pending cases of gender-based violence increased by 100% in Punjab, while 3 in Sindh, 14 in KP, 2 in Balochistan and 1% in Islamabad. If it is seen, the cases of gender discrimination are highest in Sindh after Punjab, followed by Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, but Punjab ranks first in terms of case reporting efficiency, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has recently enacted a lot of legislation in this regard, but Sindh and Balochistan are still lagging behind in terms of reporting cases.
The main reason for which is the strong tribal system there. The sad thing is that among the cases that are being reported, most of the cases of gender violence are sexual assault, including kidnapping, murder or human trafficking. In which the element of marriage of choice and running away from home is prominent.
The report states that there is an increase in electronic crimes in gender cases while there is a decrease in economic crimes. That is, now a new problem has come to the fore, which is excessive mobile use by both girls and boys due to which they are suffering from mental violence as well as depravity, which is dissociating them to stand-up in the society.
On the other hand the main reason for the increase in this violence is the lack of punishment. If it is reviewed, according to the Law and Justice Commission, the conviction rate of the accused involved in gender crimes is only 5 percent, while the acquittal rate of the accused in gender crimes is 64 percent.
According to the report, gender crimes in 2021 across the country 480 special courts were set up to deal with the cases. The performance of which needs to be further improved as the number of acquittals from these courts is 60% more than the convictions, which is a huge gap. To remove this it is necessary to improve the reporting system so that the accused do not succeed in escaping after a minor punishment, who go free and do the same again then it reaches to grave crimes like killing.
Another important problem in this regard is that in most cases of rape and violence against women, the heads of the local “Jirga and Panchait” let go the case by putting pressure on the victim’s family. The prevention of which is necessary at the legal and constitutional level so that the victims can get justice.
