Stemming the tide of violence against children

The number of children being abused and murdered has been growing at an alarming rate over the years. Although the Child Care and Protection Act was introduced, evidence suggest that a number of these cases still go unreported each year.

“Our children are being robbed of their innocence and their social development is being retarded,” President of the Kingston & St. Andrew Youth Action Forum (KSYAF), Lawman Lynch highlighted on November 21, 2007 in a Press Conference on Child Murder in Jamaica. 

According to Dwayne Cargill, 2007 National Youth Parliamentarian “one hospital has reported that in 2004, there were 265 cases of physical assault, 164 in 2005 and 166 in 2006. UN reports that only one of every ten cases of child abuse are reported.”

While this reduction indicates that it is possible that more persons are becoming aware of the consequences of child abuse we don’t have a future unless we address the problem in a more united effort.

“We need to ask ourselves how serious we are about stemming the tide of violence against our children.  Too much talk has been uttered, too many articles have been published, too many discussions over the airwaves, too many agencies are in place for us to be at this point today,” remarked Lynch.

He asked “will there be wide scale infanticide before we bring to the fore, the plight of our children and youth?”

He recommended that that by January 2008 a 9:30 p.m. curfew with half hour grace period be implemented for children. They should be off the streets on Sundays to Thursdays unless accompanied by an adult with good reason.

Sasha Small, youth advocate from the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN) believes  “the implementation of a curfew system is the answer to reduce the numbers of our children and teenagers who are gunned down, kidnapped or abused because they are on the streets late at evenings/nights.”

“For the curfew to work we have to get people to buy into it and extensive consultation with all the stakeholders must be done.  There has to be a mechanism in place that will ensure compliance and enforcement of such a programme,” remarked Cargill in an interview.

“A curfew is not the solution, but a mere piece in the puzzle to many of the problems which Jamaica face ... we need to look holistically at parenting and citizenship education,” Lynch highlighted in an interview with Go-Local Jamaica recently.

“The curfew system is an island-wide community based project that will be implemented in four communities, that forms part of the overall plan to reduce social deficiencies in our society. Community Based Organizations (CBO), Community Development Committees (CDC), the police and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) will be sensitised as to their role in this endeavour,” he further stated.

Email this to a friend | Print this Page | Join the discussion about this article