Sexual assaults on minors are growing at an alarming rate, with nearly half of rape survivors being found to be girls under the age of 16, according to a recent study.

A research conducted by the Women Rehabilitation Centre (Worec) in all 75 districts recently showed 46 percent of the survivors of sexual abuse are girls under 16. About 55 percent of the survivors are in the 17-30 years age bracket.

The data is based on cases registered with police stations and Worec safe houses.

Of the total of 95 VAW cases documented by the centre in the past 30 days, 39 percent of the victims had suffered

physical torture, followed by mental torture (24 percent) and rape (10 percent).

Of the total complaints, 8 percent were related to poly-gamy, 7 percent about other types of violence such as abduction and denial of resources, 6 percent about verbal abuse, while attempted to rape, sexual abuse and blame as witch each constitutes 2 percent.

The centre has called on the government to immediately take necessary measures to prevent girls in their most creative and constructive ages from falling prey to such heinous activities.

According to the report, many sexual crimes go un-reported due to the “women blaming” perspective of our patriarchal society.

“Sexual violence make harmful impact on a women’s life as it violates the women’s fundamental rights. The government must move forward to treat sexual violence as a serious problem,” said Durga Sob, president of Sankalpa, network of a dozen organisations working for women rights.

Similarly, Anbeshi, a book on data of gender-based violence has mentioned that 92 cases of sexual assault on minor girls were reported between June 2014 and June 2015. It meant 52.5 percent of the total number of sexual assault cases was reported in that period.

About 62 percent of the survivors of sexual abuse are predominantly undergoing physical torture and 38 percent suffer from mental torture. However, it has not received much attention as another visible impact of violence.