Police arrest parents over child sex workers, early marriages

Five parents were arrested last Thursday from Pader Town and other surrounding villages in Pader District following a crackdown on parents whose children, especially girls, were found idle and loitering on the streets of the town.
A detective at Pader Central Police Station, who requested not to be named, said those arrested included two men and three women.
“After questioning, we will refer them to Child and Family Protection Unit for further management. We also have their daughters, who were arrested, under our custody,” the source said.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony of girls and boys who received training under the Bonga project funded by International Aid Services (IAS), a non-governmental organisation, in Pader Town on Friday, the Pader Resident District Commissioner, Mr Dusman Okee, said parents are not taking the responsibility of their children, especially girls, seriously.
He said they have resorted to arresting and prosecuting them.
“As I talk now, these young girls aged between 13m and 16 roam on the streets. Once we arrest them, we shall trace their parents and prosecute them,” Mr Okee said.
Currently, it is estimated that at least 200 young girls operate as sex workers in the town and other busy trading centres of Pajule and Corner Kilak. Child sex work and early marriages have largely been attributed to parental negligence.
“Once our LDUs complete their training at Labwordwong, they are coming to supervise the streets of the town and every town council to make sure all unruly children are brought to order together with their parents,” Mr Okee added.
In Pader, data from the health information system of 2017 shows that of 103,175 children aged between one and 17, about 1,794 were impregnated. The report further indicates that 240 girls were impregnated in Pajule Sub-county while 239 fell victims in Puranga Sub-county.
“Parenting is the biggest challenge, children are left to wander on the streets and no one cares even when they are trading sex for money and engaging in other criminal activities,” Mr Larago Oringa, the Pader District chairperson, said.
He added that besides having an ordinances in place, child marriages and sex work have not reduced due to high poverty levels that drive away young girls from their homes to seek survival on the streets.
A report by IAS indicates that 31,229 girls (equivalent of 51 per cent) aged between 10 and 17 in the district were married off in the past three years whereas 8,141 children (65 per cent) are currently out of school.

ABOUT BONGA PROJECT

It is the third year that IAS is running the Bonga project in which 260 child mothers and girls are picked from the streets to go through rehabilitation and vocational skills training.
Last Friday, 313 girls and boys graduated upon completing a training in vocational skills.
The programme aims at rehabilitating child mothers and child sex workers.
Ms Juliet Namukasa, an IAS official, said offering the girls alternatives means of survival is what the district should focus

on. “When you marry a girl who is still young, she will not be mature enough for family affairs and they end up being divorced soon. Once they are chased away by their husbands, they return to the streets as single mothers to do prostitution,” Ms Namukasa said.
To date, IAS has established 45 Bonga centres comprising more than 900 girls across the district. The child mothers are not released from the centre until they complete their studies from Alarm Technical Institute.