This week is National Child Protection Week. It is an opportunity to look back at the legacy of violence against children in South Africa, and also a chance to look forwards, envisaging a country where the rights of children are respected and protected.
The state’s theme for this occasion is “working together to end violence against children.”
One wonders, given how it has chronically reneged on the Constitutional promises made to this demographic, how this will be accomplished.
This piece explores various forms of violence against children and how they are failed by government. It proposes proactive steps that could be taken to relieve their plight.
One of the most severe forms of violence is sexual and physical abuse.
Organisations such as the Teddy Bear Clinic, Child Welfare, Childline, RAPCAN, and NICRO have been instrumental in assisting children in this situation.
Indeed, even state social workers assist in protecting children who have been abused in this way, but is enough being done?
The stark reality is that there is simply not enough funding or effort made to fully protect these children.
There is also the issue of such crimes being grossly under-reported, meaning that children are not receiving the services they need to recover from atrocities committed against them.
Indeed, there is a shortage of child and youth care centres, and where these exist, they lack the support services to rehabilitate such children.
Children grow up with the cycle of abuse continuing until they reach adulthood, where they often become dysfunctional due to the trauma they have experienced.
It may not seem like an obvious point of discussion, but poverty and social exclusion come with their own forms of violence.
Living in poverty, for example, can lead to young people committing crimes or joining gangs.
Such children often lack stability in their family homes and crave the structure and leadership provided in the gang environment.
This can also lead to frustration on the part of parents and caregivers, leading to physical and emotional violence against those who are dependent upon them.
Of course, not all poor children are at risk of becoming criminals, and not all poor parents are abusers, but this is a risk factor and cannot be discounted.
An additional form of violence is neglect. If a child is not being fed or otherwise properly cared for, this can be said to be a violent act. It ties in with poverty and inequality, but can also be an intentional act.
Children in all these situations can fall into the category of “children in need of care and protection”, in section 150 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005.
One of the consequences of seeing children in an abusive environment is for them to be removed from the environment in which they are being abused. (Poverty is not a sufficient reason for removal, unless the child is also being neglected or otherwise abused.)
Abused children are placed in temporary safe care, then either allowed to return home or be placed in foster care, or a child and youth care centre. With luck, these children are allowed to return home at a later stage, or even adopted by a new family if appropriate.
South African law dictates that removal of a child is a last resort and family reunification is the ultimate goal. But again, often resources do not allow for the upliftment of parents out of poverty or empower them to become better parents.
As a consequence of this, many children find themselves in a “revolving door” of abuse and neglect, unable to change their situation.
Many of these children end up performing poorly at school due to home conditions, and become emotionally unstable due to the abuse in their homes or mistreatment in an ailing child protection system.
On the basis of the above, I wish the state luck in ending violence against children, but the road is long. Having such violence as a theme for an annual occasion is overly ambitious, to say the least.
The Children’s Act came into force 20 years ago, and it is a shame that so much remains to be done.
Let us hope that the state and its affiliates properly take up the cudgels and make things better for society’s most vulnerable.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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