Punish errant parents
Robert ‘Nesta’ Morgan calls for strict action against those who force their children to work
PARENTS FORCING their children into the sex trade and car glass wiping for economic benefits, are flirting with having their parental rights removed, state minister in the ministry of education, youth and information, Robert ‘Nesta’ Morgan is warning.
Frustrated by the state of affairs he has encountered since taking office six months ago, Morgan said a recent audit by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) has revealed that the majority of young men tagged ‘street children’ actually have homes.
“One of things we notice when we take the kids off the streets, and they go before the courts, the parents come and demonstrate their ability to take care and the CPFSA says okay we will work with the parents, and we start investing the infrastructure in the homes, they send back out the children a month later, because they are using these kids as an economic benefit,” Morgan told journalists at a quarterly virtual press briefing last Thursday.
The situation forced Morgan to point out that what this did was to bring the consideration of parental rights, a question that he did not wish to answer then, but it was a question, that the Jamaican society would have to answer. “Do we need to look at a regime or a process where we start removing parental rights from some of these parents, who consistently demonstrate behaviour that puts our children in peril?” he asked.
Parents who continue to use their children for economic benefit; parents who uses their daughter for sexual favours, he said is the same category or probably worse than a parent who uses their son to wipe car glass.
He said it was revealed that the girls were sometime were being forced into sex, while the boys are being forced to wipe windscreens which are the key issued being grappled by CPFSA.
WHAT RIGHTS DO THESE CHILDREN HAVE
“It has to do with intervention at the family level, as to how parents see children and what rights these children have. Are the babies ornaments; the toddlers means of economic aid and the adult, pension, as traditionally as we see them in some cases, or are they human beings with rights who deserve to be protected and we need to put in the policies, laws, and systems to protect them?”
Morgan described the actions of those paying them at the stoplights as a capitalist action, even while admitting that some of them were runaways who have to fend for themselves. He added, the suggestion of providing hostels for them has been looked at, but he worries about the disadvantages that occur when their families send them to work after the authorities remove them.
His comments were bolstered by chief executive officer of the CPFSA, Rosalee Gage-Grey who say within months the survey identifying the pull and push factor findings will be released.
According to her the findings had been submitted to the Cabinet, and efforts were now being made to identify those who are on the streets.
“They come from a set of communities, and what we have learnt is that a lot of community intervention will be necessary, along with parenting support, because once they are given funds on the streets they are going to be coming back.”
It is estimated that some of the children make up to $50,000 per month, a figure that the Government would probably not be able to match.