Protect children from teenage pregnancies 

Emilly C. Maractho  

What you need to know:

  • A number of related policies and favourable institutional framework exists to facilitate the protection and promotion of children’s rights.  
  • While children are protected by legal instruments, the irony is that their rights are among the most violated in our context. 

The rights of children are provided for in our Constitution. 
The United Nations Convention for the Rights of Children, 1989; African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and several national laws, including the Children Act 2000, all aim at protecting children from abuse. 

A number of related policies and favourable institutional framework exists to facilitate the protection and promotion of children’s rights.  
While children are protected by legal instruments, the irony is that their rights are among the most violated in our context. 

There is increased reporting on women and children in the media, which highlights the gravity of this situation, that for many of us creates anxiety. 
The Daily Monitor,  September 24, ran a story on how Mbarara leaders were worried over the rising number of teenage pregnancies. 

The numbers are difficult to accept, especially in a single district, or one city. 
It was reported that between the months of January and August,  upto 1,363 teenage pregnancies were registered in Mbarara, with the highest number in June at a staggering 193 teenage pregnancies. 
We have been treated to many stories of defilement and other sexual offences, as well as domestic violence this season of Covid-19. 

Many have blamed Covid-19, while some say the closure of schools made girls vulnerable to abuse. 
Reproductive health advocates emphasise the lack of knowledge or availability of reproductive health products in rural areas and so on.
The government and development partners are clearly concerned and are doing things about it. 

Recently, government, together with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched a mobile phone application, Safe-pal to enable young people report cases of sexual and gender-based violence. 
Of course, there are several other interventions. All of these are important elements of the struggle to protect the rights of children and girls in particular.

There are clearly layers to this situation. Before young people even need to report cases, how can we prevent this from happening in the first place? Why has this become such a difficult thing to deal with? Where is the missing link?
With all the campaigns that have been in place to prevent HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the situation involving high number of teenage pregnancies implies that may young people are either not accessing that information or they do not take it seriously. 
That we are faced with such staggering figures is a reflection of the status of our society, and how it remains a difficult place for young women.

While it is good that steps to punish offenders and to enable those that have been violated to seek justice are in place, we should, for good measure, use every social institution at our disposal to address these issues. 
They need to be convinced that they have an important role to play in protecting girls from early marriage and teenage pregnancy. 

These social institutions like the family, churches and cultural institutions need to make this an important agenda as health and education do their part. 
The family, for example, is a good place to start. If girls are not safe in their homes, and are taught to remain safe, they will never be safe anywhere else or protect their dignity. 

The school should not be the only safe place for young women to thrive or feel protected. 
They should be more protected in their homes. When children become mothers, they cannot guarantee the protection and safety of their children, who will in turn suffer similar fate.  

Besides families, churches can make this part of their message. 
When we were growing up, the church was very instrumental in passing on values to young people that made them stay largely on the straight and narrow. 

The cultural institutions have a powerful role to play. They are capable of having real impact. 
Because many of these problems emanate from culture and our understanding of the place of women in society, it is important that these cultural institutions redefine the place of women in society. 

Many parents now think they have a limited role to play in the lives of children. Yet, raising children right is what parents can do well. 

There are many ways girls can be kept busy at home, discovering their talent. Girls tend to be naturally creative and gifted at things they can easily excel in. Everyone has a role to play. 

Those ensuring offenders are punished, those empowering child mothers and those preventing more from falling into such traps, can keep working. 


Ms Maractho is the head and senior lecturer, Department of Journalism and Media Studies at UCU. 
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