From Law to Life: Reimagining Child Protection Against Physical Abuse in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Child physical abuse is a serious violation of children’s rights and a critical public-health, social-welfare, and child-protection concern in Pakistan. Despite Pakistan’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the development of child-protection mechanisms in Punjab, substantial gaps remain between legal frameworks and their implementation in practice (United Nations, 1989; UNICEF Pakistan, 2019; NCRC, 2025). This qualitative case study explores the challenges experienced by 15 Child Protection Unit field officers working with children and families at risk of physical abuse in Punjab. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and thematically analyzed to examine perceived causes, institutional responses, cultural barriers, operational difficulties, and post-intervention support. Findings indicate that socioeconomic hardship, parental psychological distress, family conflict, large household size, and social acceptance of violent discipline contribute to child physical abuse. Officers further identified staff shortages, heavy caseloads, transportation constraints, limited rural outreach, weak inter-agency coordination, and inadequate case monitoring as major institutional barriers. A critical gap was the limited availability of psychological counseling, family rehabilitation, parenting support, and long-term follow-up after immediate protection. The study recommends strengthening institutional capacity, expanding rural services, improving referral and case-management systems, integrating family and mental-health support, promoting positive parenting, and developing community-based prevention programs to transform child protection in Punjab from a reactive response into a coordinated, preventive, and child-centered system.