Workplaces: New baby dumping sites?

areas or anything in between, a baby is not one of the parcels to expect everyday.
However, there is a good chance that a baby might be dumped at one workplace or another sooner or later, as cases of women dumping children at their husbands’ workplaces become more common.
A recent example is that of a woman, only identified as Vivian, who reportedly dumped a 10-month-old “love child” at its his father Langton Ringisai Nyasha’s workplace in Borrowdale.
Vivian stated that Nyasha was “neither supporting” his child nor paying rent for his family.
Interestingly, Nyasha was due to be paid that day.
For the women concerned, the reason is purely economic, and a bit of application of that old counsel that “you must be cruel in order to be kind”.
“I have not done that myself but I understand how women feel in that situation,” said mother of two Jennifer Mubaiwa of Chitungwiza.
“You have to make a statement to the husband that he has to take care and provide for his family.
“When you embarrass him in front of his peers and colleagues, maybe he learns a lesson in responsibility,” she added.
Such a drastic move would come after negotiations fail at home, she said.
“Some men are stingy and secretive and they punish you at home while they go out there and pretend to be gentlemen. This will teach them a lesson and the world will see just what he is,” she told The Herald.
A woman who claimed she witnessed such a case at her workplace last year said she had felt along the woman who came and dumped a six-month-old baby.
“I don’t know whether she was acting up or not, but the woman was a sorry sight,” said the woman who cannot be named.
“She was dressed pitifully and the child was filthy and wet. She said the man had not even brought baby clothes for the young one and she had to use old clothes and borrow some from relatives.
“She came during the tea break when everyone relaxing and made a scene right from the security point to the main office. She entered the front office and sat the baby on the receptionist’s desk and said it was a parcel for the company.
“Everybody immediately heard that and came out of their offices and what an embarrassment it was for the husband, respected for his seniority at the company!
“The manager immediately took the woman and the man into his office and talked to them. After, the woman refused to take the baby home. The manager had no choice but to let the man leave work and go away with the baby,” she narrated.
She recalls how the man was crestfallen for many days after that incident.
“At least it worked,” she said, “because I have seen them together in town doing some shopping.”
A professional lady, though, says she cannot countenance the prospect of dumping a baby at her husband’s workplace.
“It is embarrassing and even after you mend, people will remember such an incident and will talk about it,” said the 31-year-old mother of one.
“There are other ways of solving problems like going to the courts and approaching the husband’s relatives,” she said although noting that some husbands could be difficult.
They could falsify pay slips and understate their earnings or did not have payslips at all, making it difficult for the courts to award meaningful amounts as maintenance.
But washing dirty linen in public was a non-starter for her.
She related to a newspaper story in which it was revealed that after a woman ditched a child at a man’s workplace, the latter had to engage a vendor to look after the baby. She said it was the child who suffered in the circumstances.
This is a view shared by talk show host and social commentator Rebecca Chisamba.
She was revolted with the idea of a woman, or at that a man, using a child to seek attention.
“It is madness at its worst,” she said of women who ditch children at their spouse’s work place.
“A child is not filth that can be dumped,” she averred.
It is behaviour, worse than that of baboons, said Mai Chisamba.
“Baboons take care of their babies and you see the baboon caring and carrying its baby. It is unAfrican and the woman who does that needs psychological help. It is a lame excuse to say that the father would not be providing for the child. As a responsible mother, the child eats what you eat,” she said.
She observed that women who ditched children at their husbands’ workplaces were desperate attention seekers.
“Using a child that way is cruel . . . there are other proper channels like going to the maintenance courts,” she said.
She advised patents to respect and to be considerate to children. “The child is not part of your problem and was not even consulted when it was born. The child has a right to be protected.”
However some man supported the idea saying fellowmen needed to be responsible for the upkeep of own off springs.
“Why should it be difficult to take care of your child when you have the audacity to father. This is the only way we can make sure men take responsibility over their children. The behaviour of some of these man is animalish and they need to be put in line,” James Muchena of Ruwa.
Child rights stakeholders are as worried by the cases of women dumping children at their husband’s workplaces or homes.
Mr Caleb Mutandwa Programmes Director at Justice for Children Trust says they have received “quite a number of these cases, although they are not in the majority”.
“This violates the rights of the child,” said Mr Mutandwa.
“Laws like the Children’s Act criminalises abuse of children,” he said noting that the offending women would not be considering the rights of the children.
Section Seven of the Children’s Act, explained Mr Mutandwa, guards against ill-treatment or neglect of children.
It says: “If any parent or guardian of a child or young person assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or exposes him (or her) or allows, causes, or procures to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned or exposed in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or to injure or to detrimentally two affect his health or morals or any part or function of his mind or body shall be guilty of an offence.”
Offenders face up to two years in prison, a fine or both if convicted.
Mr Mutandwa said that although m any offending women have not been arrested they still committed an offence liable to the above sanction.
He explained advised women to find recourse in the law, which provides for maintenance.
As for difficult men who understated their earnings, he said, women could help themselves by adequately preparing for their day in court by seeking legal advice, the counsel of which could help enforce maintenance orders.
Mr Mutandwa revealed that men were also coming to his organisation for advice after their “baby mamas” were in the habit of ditching children.
He recalled one case in which a woman was in the habit of taking a child and dumping them back and the man had to seek legal custody of the child.
Police say that it is criminal to dump babies on the excuse that the father is not economically supportive.
“It is unlawful,” Police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau told The Herald, “because it constitutes abuse of children”
He could not readily provide statistics of the crime.