WHO'S TO BLAME FOR CHILD ABUSE? PARENTS OR EMPLOYERS OF CHILD LABOUR?

From time immemorial, we've heard innumerable stories about young underage domestics being
mistreated and abused by their bosses and this forces us to ask the inevitable question, 'Why are
domestics always abused?'
Is it possible that we've been asking the wrong question all along and ignoring the actual problem
associated with stories like this? Forgive me if I'm wrong but I believe the major cause for concern here
is why parents give their little children out to serve as domestics to other people.
Sadly, we live in a world where people are no longer guided by their conscience, where selfishness,
malice and sadism reign supreme. Giving out your children to another family to cater for is one of the
riskiest things you can do to that child.
Are we saying there are no good foster parents who nurture 'adopted' kids like their own? No. There are
but the margin of the reverse is too steep to be toyed with.
Before handing out the death penalty to parents who give out their kids to relatives and friends, let us
first put ourselves in their shoes for a minute and try to comprehend their reasons for resorting to such
extremities. I think the major reason is inability to cater to the child's needs financially and provide a
conducive living environment.
When you think of the fact that you're exposing an innocent child who didn't ask to be born to probable
sexual abuse, violence and maltreatment, wouldn't you rather keep that child with you and drink garri
morning, noon and night than have that child eat rice and be subjected to the worst kinds of abuse
known to mankind?
A huge number of children all around the world are being exposed to some form of abuse right under
their parents' noses so you can imagine how the risk factor is doubled when they're with people who
share no blood relationship with them.
Illiteracy makes this child-letting situation worse as the latter is prevalent amongst uneducated people
with large numbers of kids. These people have seven to ten kids and no tangible source of income so
what happens when a relative or worse still, shady Mama Nkechi who sells provisions from across the
street comes to offer them a means to 'alleviate' their suffering by 'adopting' one or two of their flock
for them to take care of or give to another relative with promises of sending the children to school and
giving them a better life? The gullible parents jump at the offer without giving it any thought.
This is almost always the case with these kinds of situations. In saner climes, if a parent is unable to
cater for their offspring, social services take these children away and they become properties of the
government. But here in Nigeria, unwilling kids are being carted off to strangers' homes and made to
clean and scrub till their epidermis wear away, wake up at 3 a.m to get the house ready for the day,
bathe and feed the kids while he/she is stripped off the opportunity to go to school.
It doesn't end there. At the end of the day, 'madam' is never satisfied. She complains that the 'domestic'
is too lazy even after polishing the walls, she's a glutton, how dare she eat two slices of bread; after all,
can her family afford bread? She beats the poor child, humiliates her. She's doing the girl's poor family a favour after all.
When stories concerning 'madams' mistreating their 'help' surface online, we're quick to rain curses at the madam. She's the devil's incarnate, she's inhuman, she's wicked. While all these are not far from the truth, we forget that the first step towards child abuse was made the moment the child's parents said 'yes' and allowed their underage child to be carted away to be a domestic servant.
Parents. There's this government incentive known as 'Family Planning'. It enables you have as many kids as you can cater for. Having multiple children whose lives will eventually be ruined by poverty and abuse, is sheer wickedness on your part.
No matter how much is being said about this, some will still hand their precious kids on a platter to 'madams' so please, if you're reading this and you are straddled with the responsibility of catering to another person's child, blood relation or not, remember the biblical saying, 'Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you'. Take a moment to give it some thought, would you be comfortable seeing your
child being treated the way you treat that child who isn't yours? Let your last shred of conscience
answer this.
To neighbors, family members and friends who witness a child being abused physically, emotionally or
sexually, do not keep mum about it. Get the authorities involved and safe the poor child from abuse.
We all owe posterity the duty of protecting poor, helpless little kids.
-Jessica Egbe for unbrokenchords