The Death of Another Nine Year Old Child
Once more we are left in shock and we grieve the death of another child. Once more, we are left bewildered and helpless in the face of such brutality and reckless violence against our children.This little nine year old boy was brutally sodomised, stabbed repeatedly and left to die on a lonely bushy track miles away from where he lived.
This incident is reminiscent of the Ananda case a little nine year old girl who was violated , killed and left in a remote area in Red Hills .
As much as I sympathise with the mother and father of the victims a very important question comes back to my mind.Where does parental responsibility lie in such cases? Why should a child be allowed on his/her own without any protection left to face alone the evil forces that are fast overtaking our communities? Why?
I have said this before and I will say it again : to the parents, in law, lies the sacred responsibility to offer care and protection to their children. In this case the child did not go to school because there was no money for his bus fare so he stayed home.Where was his mother? where was his father or his guardian? Under whose supervision was he? How comes he was in another area away from home offering his services to an adult? It is obviously something that he has done in the past and felt comfortable doing trustingly. This time in his trusting innocence he went to the wrong adult and perished.
What degree of responsibility do the parents bear in such a tragic situation? Of course one would find it very difficult to tell a parent under such traumatic and tragic circumstances that he or she is guilty of neglecting the child. It is a very painful reality but it is nevertheless a fact that we must all face.The child should have been under the care and protection of the parents or guardians. Why were there no provisions made for the child to attend school? Should the parents be facing an extremely difficult financial situation they could have secured help from any government agency responsible for special support to families in distress; they could have approached the church in the area and ensured the child’s opportunity to attend school.All this puts into focus” parental responsibility and care.”A child repeatedly left on his own is a child who runs the risk of facing all sorts of dangers and therefore needs care and protection.Where do we go from here
When is the law going to be applied effectively to protect and care for our children? In this case, it is imperative that the Child’s Advocate’s office conducts a thorough investigation and a home assessment to better understand where the very important rule of care and protection has been disregarded.The time has come to bring justice to our children and take the necessary steps to enforce parental responsibility.
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