Vulnerable children need and deserve better protection

Dec 15, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Guyana’s vulnerable children deserve better protection. Children without the guidance and protection of their principal care-givers are often more vulnerable and at risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking, discrimination or other abuses. The result of inadequate protection has been that, especially over the last two decades, many children have been forced to live outside of homes and have become involuntary ‘street children.’
The exact number of children living on Guyana’s streets is difficult to determine but is believed to run into a few hundreds. The number includes children who live permanently or part-time on the streets, often because they have fled home because of hardship, neglect or violence.
The People’s Progressive Party Civic administration thought that it could solve the problem of the growing number of street children by establishing a ‘drop-in centre’ in June 1999. The centre was quickly overwhelmed. It discovered also that groups of vulnerable children were growing in urban areas other than Georgetown – New Amsterdam, Linden and Parika and in rural areas such as the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, Demerara-Mahaica and East Berbice-Corentyne Regions.
The ‘drop-in-centre’ approach did not address the prevalence and causation of vulnerability. It was inadequate to correct the problem of children living on the street and of others who were victims of violence and abuse. The plight of orphans in orphanages across the country and child labourers also had to be considered.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reported in 2009 that “forced labour exists in the form of forced prostitution in logging camps and mines. The state agencies and the law enforcers do little to address forced labour and trafficking.” The report stated that “the government’s efforts to cope with child labour and enforce compulsory education are inadequate given that the problem concerns at least one fifth of Guyanese children. Many children are engaged in hazardous work and child prostitution is recognised as one of Guyana’s worst forms of child labour. The law on child labour is not enforced effectively.”
The administration’s response was to reject the cure without remedying the malady. It then attempted to combine various projects to help vulnerable children in a single-structured programme.  The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security sought help from the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to design a National Plan of Action for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children. This Plan, had it been implemented, could have provided a framework for supplementary measures to protect orphans and other vulnerable children, not only street children, from all forms of abuse.
The Plan could have provided a national framework to ensure that the rights of the vulnerable – children’s right to survival, development, protection and participation – could be guaranteed. These rights, in turn, would include “strengthening the capacity of families to care and protect orphans and the vulnerable by prolonging the lives of parents and guardians, providing economic, psycho-social and child-care support, promoting children’s participation in gainful activities and helping young people acquire skills.”
There has been more legislation to promote children’s rights than ever before. Enforcement, however, has been weak. Several bills and amendments –  including  the Protection of Children Bill; the Status of Children Bill; the Adoption of Children Bill; the Child Care Protection Agency Bill and the Juvenile Justice, Custody, Contact, Guardianship and Maintenance Bill – have been passed in the National Assembly.  The Sexual Offences Act, which was passed in the National Assembly in 2010 and the Domestic Violence Act of 2002, also offer protection for children. The Child Protection and Development Services Act, passed in 2011, caters for the licencing and monitoring of children’s facilities including day-care centres and play groups. Reliance on enacting laws without enforcing them is nugatory.
The situation of vulnerable children still continues to deteriorate. The Ministry of Human Services in January this year announced that there were 4,102 reported child abuse cases – about 11 cases daily – last year. There were also hundreds of cases of sexual, physical and verbal abuse, teenage pregnancy and delinquency. The Ministry’s Child Care and Protection Agency added that 101 children were separated from their parents and placed in institutions, and pointed out that mothers and fathers were the main perpetrators of abuse.
The PPPC administration needs to adopt a holistic approach to alleviate the plight of vulnerable children. The persistence of the problem in 2013 suggests that there has been a lack of understanding of the complexity of the problem and a lack of willingness to implement necessary measures to help children who suffer from multiple deprivations of rights. Abuse and violence arise from various social, economic and cultural factors. Meaningful change is unlikely to be achieved without addressing the socio-economic conditions affecting children and their families.
The administration needs to initiate a new process for the implementation of a public policy that guarantees that all children receive the best support possible so they can leave the streets, be included in schools or apprenticeships, or jobs, and return to their families and communities.
Vulnerable children, including those on the street, are the inevitable result of the massive poverty that prevails and of the widening disparity between the rich and poor. Implementing a plan of action for vulnerable children needs new political will to deal decisively with this core problem.

 

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