It is very interesting and perhaps worthwhile that the case of - TopicsExpress



          

It is very interesting and perhaps worthwhile that the case of brutalisation of an innocent child by a maid has rang wake calls for child protection workers, advocates, parents, guardians, sympathisers, etc to consider a law regulating the employment and practice of housemaids. Better late than never. However, without discounting the potential of such a law in contributing to a protective environment for children (that is if it will), in my view many questions still linger. For instance, will it be addressing the deep seated problems that expose children to such immeasurable torture? Likely not! Personally, i get to think the problem lies elsewhere and we are hurrying to address the symptoms. Get to think of the parental leave allowed to our Ugandan parents. How adequate enough is it to allow women and men to nurture their infants during the very deserving attachment stage, a period during which cognitive development is fastest? The 3 months maternal and 4 days paternal leaves are sincere mockery. And when it comes to women employed in the private sector, who even ever cases about their woes in regard to the maltreatment they go through simply because of their right to parental leave? Many are faster to look at parental leave as labour lost than an investment in child care and protection. It is partly for this reason that today we witness without meaningfully questioning the proliferation of Early childhood development (ECD) centres, many of which never come close to standards of child protection. But we simply see them as convenient and children as young as less than 1 year are admitted. Many of us must be victims if not perpetrators. Why for instance are employing agencies encouraged to provide child care facilities where every employee can be entitled to a defined maximum number of children spread across his or her career. If this is to be the case, both men and women should be equal beneficiaries so as to discourage preferential employment of men over women. This is something that is achievable. More and more questions indeed arise including minimum wage, enforcement of health and safety laws, employment policy and then considering social protection as integral to development rather than a privilege to a handful who make it to the formal sector.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 23:53:12 +0000

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