By all means, sexual violence is mammoth mess throughout the world and low literacy rates and unawareness are contributing it. The WHO’s pilot survey cited that one woman out of three is assaulted sexually and physically in the globe. Rape cases are not uncommon in low literacy rate countries such as Africa and Pakistan.

There is a myriad of reasons behind this but lack of education is one of the biggest reasons. Lack of sex education in the curriculum in schools results in children which are not aware of what regards as sexual and physical assault. For instance, New Zealand’s Ministry of Education advertised sex education in new curriculum in the entire schools in 2015 —which curtailed rape cases in some extent. Of late, several heinous incidents: Zainab case, Motorway tragedy, occurred in the country. Therefore, the dearth of sex education in the curriculum has resulted in children who are unaware of what constitutes sexual assault. Because of this unawareness, innumerable rape cases are unreported in the country.

Ergo, lack of education in the society— which emboldens convicts to commit these awful crimes— is the reason why rape cases numbers are multiplying each passing day in the country.

IRFAN RASHEED BALOCH,

Karachi.