adminnegligence perpetrated by parents, guardians and caregivers. Society has generally called for stiffer sentences on perpetrators of child abuse while conveniently ignoring that lack of attention or care by parents and guardians.
The various forms of child negligence are physical, emotional, medical and educational. Child abuse is an even more serious form of child negligence.
It is clearly stated that it is a crime to fail to provide for a child unless the parent can prove that he or she is incapacitated.
The civil courts are inundated with cases of custodial parents, mostly women, seeking maintenance from men who openly acknowledge paternity then give various reasons as to why they are not looking after their offspring.
If they cannot convince the magistrate that they are incapacitated then surely it is the duty of that magistrate to apply the law and convict such people of negligence instead of just ordering them to pay maintenance from that stage henceforth?
If that happened I am sure that the case of parents shirking responsibility for their children would be reduced drastically and fewer children would have to suffer deprivations of food and school fees and access to medical services.
On the other hand the custodial parent should not ask the other parent to foot the bills as both parents are responsible for the upbringing of the children. Maybe if the men see that women are also pulling their weight they will be more reasonable on their duties.
Some religious sect members do not believe in conventional medicine and in extreme cases the police have to assist health workers to get their children vaccinated. But surprisingly no prosecution of the parents follows meaning that the problem will continue unabated.
In Zimbabwe anybody under the age 18 is considered to be a child. The parents, guardians, step-father/mother and relatives may neglect the child. These people, on whom the child depends may either ignore the child on purpose or in some of the cases unknowingly.
According to the Children’s Act Section 7 (d) a parent or guardian shall be deemed to have abandoned or neglected that child if he/she fails to provide adequate supervision of that child. A drive along the residential streets of any town especially the high density areas is an obstacle course for the driver as one has to hoot and swerve to avoid children playing on the streets.
When motorists run over such children they might be charged with culpable homicide but should the parents not be prosecuted for allowing their children to be roam unattended in dangerous places? Then there are the parents who allow children as young as six to commute using public transport without an escort. Sometimes the commuter omnibus crews are made de facto guardians of such children.
Sometimes the children do not even have enough money for the fare thereby leaving them vulnerable to abuse by the commuter omnibus crews. A perusal of the local media – both print and electronic – reveals a desperate situation where the rape of minors has become common place. The Junior Parliament recommended the castration of those convicted of raping minors during the constitutional outreach programme.
Although one cannot exonerate a rapist in any circumstances, in some cases it is clear that the responsible parent will have made a poor judgement call and is also responsible for the abuse inflicted on the child.
When parents or guardians make children share a bedroom or even a bed with an adult of the opposing sex are they not setting up a child to be sexually abused?
Cases of child sexual abuse in the media show that it is people who have access to the child who are most likely to harm a child. And it is undeniable that men of all ages are in the majority of cases the perpetrators of rape and sexual abuse.
Should the parents especially mothers then not make it part of their responsibility to ensure that they never leave their children alone under the care of uncles, cousins, stepfathers? And even fathers and brothers should be treated with caution as shown by the case of the 15-year-old boy who recently raped his sister. A court official who refused to be named admitted that in spite of there being effective legislation in place the system is largely turning a blind eye to the crime of negligence. He pointed out that even if a person is convicted of negligence or ill-treatment of a child, the sentence he or she is given is light. It is very rare for that person to be given a custodial sentence.
It is high time perpetrators are given custodial sentence to deter would be offenders. It would appear that the traditional need for people to keep hidden anything bad that goes on in the family is another reason why neglect of children goes unchallenged.
Spouses, relatives and neighbours are reluctant to come out against each other preferring to let the child suffer instead. It is only when something drastic like rape or death has occurred that you hear people saying that they had noticed that the child was neglected long before. There is need to create awareness among the people as to what constitutes negligence and then prosecute offenders to make sure that everyone gets the message.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter