Child beggars...who is to blame?

When the word child comes to mind, it’s usually associated with a lot of play, fun, school and laughter. These are the activities they indulge in as part of their growth process. However, we have seen a breed of children in the streets of Harare or any other urban city taking to work through begging. Who is to blame for this predicament?

The Constitution defines a child as “any boy or girl who is below the age of 18”. A child as a minor is incapable of making any decisions that affect his or her life hence the need for a major through a parent or guardian above the age of majority to stand as its custodian. In exercising their representative capacity for the child, the parent or guardian is expected to safeguard the best interests of that child over and above all things. This provision is enshrined in the Constitution. Is it in the child’s best interest to be deprived of education, play and fun by parents who use their child as a mode of survival in begging?

A child is entitled to play and learning as part of the socialization process and growth. But it would appear as though there is an increased number of children who beg for a living or after school beg, in the process being deprived of both and much more. A stolen childhood is the end result.

What pulls at your heartstrings even the more is these innocent children most barely in their teens are roped into this lifestyle by their own parents who are supposed to be their custodians. A child of the streets who has been born to a begging parent is being used as a front to manipulate generous givers. The parent has seen that the only way the general populace can be over generous or nudged to be generous is if they are ensnared by the pitiful faces of these children asking for donations especially money.

Most of these have not reached teenage hood. Their parents rely on the notion that the younger the child begging the more generous the loot. These parents actually sit in the peripheries or out of plain sight whilst monitoring the movements of their begging children. For those who beg after school, the children are given a target of how much to bring home after “a day’s work”. Failure to do so has some dire consequences like in the form of deprivation of food.

 What I greatly doubt is how much they benefit directly from whatever they acquire in a day’s work? Or maybe their “employers” just take the spoils without reimbursing the one who worked for it.

Surely, who is to blame? Has the economic dwindle failed our children and influenced them to turn to begging as a way of survival yet in turn robbing them of the childhood they deserve? Or have their own parents failed them much more through being the force behind a child begging? Some parents, upon being quizzed actually say they have no choice but to use their child so as to sustain the family.

 I believe that in as much as the situation is dire, as the custodian of that child and the major in the situation, as a parent and naturer you have a choice. A choice to let your child be a child. Let that child enjoy its childhood without interference from anything or anyone. Show only love for your child by working hard and doing the begging yourself to sustain your family.

Published by TawanaTariro