DIRECTOR, AFRICA RIGHTS OF THE HILD FOUNDATION
I am happy to have invited to read a paper on a subject which I gleaned to the welfare of the child. As far as this topic is concerned, I believed that most of what is pertinent to Ghana applies equally or with some local modifications or emphasis, to other has developed and developing countires especially in Africa.
The Fundamental unit of all societies is the family. The family is usually the major source of the basic necessities of life and health; love and tenderness, adequate food, clean water, a place and time for rest, clothing and sanitation, to the extent made possible by socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions. Thus in discussing issues regarding the welfare of the child, it would be rather superfluous to overlook the basic cultural and traditional child bearing practices of the society. This presupposes the arrestment of the societal relations existing amongst the members of the society, the values given to childbearing and rearing practices in a given culture, the role expected of children in general and how they develop within the family group.
In the traditional, rural societies the extended family system which includes several generations plus cousins, uncles and aunts living in a compound or close to one another form the family.
The family is responsible for the care and up-bringing of all children. It is a cohesive unit which ideally provides economic [land for farming etc] social and psychological security to all its members. It defines social and moral norms and safeguards both material and spiritual customs and traditions as well as providing a variety of role models preparing the way for adulthood. It is important to emphasis that this system with the dominance of the elders,/aged as the safe of society, has a relatively high degree of social control on the individual especially the youth.
Within this structure, children occupy a central place and are raised in close family group. It is common that responsibility for the social development of the child is shared by the members of the community. It is in this respect that it could be said that in the traditional system there is hardly the illegitimate child. Even where parents are dead, a child would always have "parents" - a cushion against the odds.
Although the mother has a fundamental responsibility for child rearing and development, it is shared among all members of the family. There are many mothers for a child. Thus the African Child usually develops a strong sense of social responsibility from his earliest years and learns to be respectful, responsible, and supportive member his extended family.
Marriage within the traditional social system has a relatively high degree of stability. This is mainly due to the fact that marriage is considered not as between two individual per se, but mainly between two extended families who consent to the union. In the Ghanaian social system, the family elders in consultation with the will-be husband make the necessary customary negotiations and discuss issues and pay the bride-wealth to the family elders of the will-be bride with the consent of the girl.
It becomes obligatory for members of both families to ensure that the marriage is successful. Thus the elders "supervise" and provide moral support and are usually resource persons consulted in time of problems with the marriage. Thus this safety-valve makes it quite difficult for any of the spouses to seek divorce easily. This would entail long discussions with both the families of husband and wife just like what pertains during the marriage contract.
The individual spouse is required by custom to submit and explain his/her grievances for divorce to the court of family elders [both families]. Thus the man cannot just repudiate the wife without the consent of this court and a woman has a right to contest repudiation in this court. The man cannot also abdicate parental responsibility of children of the repudiated wife. Even though the extended family provided support where the biological parents fail in their duty toward their children, there is a strong stigma attached to people shirking their responsibilities in the family. The elders do not take kindly to it.
It is true that the traditional system of Ghana generally approves of polygamy. However, custom expects that each woman in a polygamous family in many cases the first wife is consulted before the husband takes another wife. The two or more wives in most cases are rivals only in name because in the traditional system they are all to complement the efforts of the man in keeping the children [feeding them] irrespective of who the mothers are - and supporting the man's economic venture and role in society. Large human resources in this context is perceived as a potential source of power especially in the agrarian society where cheap labour is the base of economic viability. This large population size is therefore a desirable value of parental and strict social control are the main principles of achieving this desire.
The traditional African Society as described above has come under the influence of exogenous forces which have not only transformed the society's orientation but in some instances they have distorted the social system.
As part of the process of rapid demographic and socio-economic change due mainly to urbanization and modernization, patterns of family formation and family life are continuing to undergo considerable change, altering the composition and structure of families in our societies.
The traditional family structure under pressure from rapid social change is undergoing erosion, and is generally splitting up to such an extent that it is failing to fulfil its primary role of socialization.
More prominent in urban areas is the rapid appearance of the nuclear family system, there does not appear to be, a sense of cohesion. It is a matter of the individuals' life, his house, his possessions, and not the traditional usage of our farm, our home, sharing all happiness, woes, successes of the extended family loyalty and responsible to one's elders.
Urbanization and modernization have placed heavy burdens on families who still shoulder socio-economic responsibilities of the extended family. It is not as easy as in the past to provide children with the same amount of care and attention they automatically receive in the extended family set-up. Urbanization and modernization directly cuts across ancestry-based residence and mutual social, spiritual, and economic co-operation.
Modernization and industrialization enforce the influx of people into the cities in search of jobs. The village migrant in the city finds room not in the affluent residential areas, but at the fringes of the city and in the slum areas. The major problem after all is not so much one of housing as it is of securing a niche in the urban economy.
The tension inherent in the uncertainties of the new society has far reaching implications for the physical and mental well-being of all. With regular employment at decent wage levels a rarity, mothers are constrained to combine their traditional roles - childrearing and household chores with earning money to/supplement the household income.
It is common place to find some streets lined up with nursing mothers with babies under the scourge of the sun begging for money; or they may stop breast feeding the baby in order to peddle cooked food, peanuts, cooked egg, and vegetables in the market or along the city streets.
Let us take the example of the market woman who wakes up each day at 4.00 a.m. every morning to prepare kenkey for sale. She took the to sell in the city centre where she spent the whole day. Then she had to buy the ingredients for the next day and arrived home after ten at night exhausted. The children are left alone to play in the streets and the dunghill... "God looks after them..." Toddlers run risks of malnutrition - and if they do not die early the body and brain development may well be stunted. This is compounded by children's vulnerability to accidents when placed, as is common, in the care of brothers or sisters only a few older than themselves.
It must be recognized that the involvement of more mothers in the modern labour force, deprives the family of the daily love and care so necessary for proper child rearing and development. Even though women work along side their husbands - if not more - in the supportive extended family network. In the modern era the family has gradually shrunk to become the nuclear family, consisting solely of parents and their children - thus denying many parents the assistance they once received from extended family support networks. As a result, many parents find it increasingly difficult to carry out all their work and family responsibilities.
The situation becomes more poignant if we consider the fact that despite modernization, the values of traditional society still remain the reasoning structure and the referrent value of most of us and this has big influence on parenthood in our societies. For example, despite the transformation of the economy into a money economy and the limitations and pressures associated large families, the issue of pronatalism is still persistent even in high places. Modern family planning which is a conscious effort of couples to have children when they want them, has hardly been accepted.
As a result, the problem of poverty and hunger are intensified mainly because of the rapid population growth which tends to outstrip the level of food production, employment facilities, and even the availability of social amenities for all segments of the population.
Such stresses have become particularly acute in recent years in countires like Ghana where Governments have taken steps to reduce social expenditures as part of their efforts to bring Government revenues and expenditures into balance and implement structural adjustment programmes. While every member of the poor household is adversely affected, the children suffer most. The children often have to devote most of their day to helping the family in its income-raising ventures. Even if they should manage to attend school, regularly, eventually, the lack of suitable clothing, footwear, or money to buy the basic school equipment and needs encourages them to drop-out voluntarily. In the higher grades, students drop-out because their cramped, poorly-lit dwelling make it virtually impossible for them to keep up their studies.
The situation is compounded by the fact that in modern times the stability of the family has been seriously threatened. Marriage has gradually become the individual's concern rather than a concern of two extended families who give their daughter or son respectively and "supervise" and support the marriage. Emphasis on individual mate selected without the active invlovement of the extended family system has tended to cause marital instability which customary and statutory laws in Ghana re-unable to cope with. The divorce rate has risen sharply. Almost everywhere, the number of single parent families has increased dramatically.
The child suffers. For growth and development of a child's personality, it is desirable for both parents to be around in cases where the "extended family" is no longer in function. A child whose mother is repudiated by the father, or where life at home becomes intolerable due to threats, quarrels, even physical violence, where a father resorts to drinking heavily to drown his sorrows, or abandon his family altogether because of his inability to meet the family needs, develops psychological problems in empathy with the abandoned mother.
Many of these children end-up in the street to earn a living and to support their mother and siblings. Street-children are becoming of great concern of late. They roam the streets, offering their services as load carriers, ice water vendors, scrap metal sorters, wooden toy makers, peanut, orange and banana sellers. The boys chase cars with their wares - a risky business life.
Many adolescents start their working life too early and are either unable to go to school or both work and go to school, and they suffer from fatigue and have a greater number of work-related accidents than older workers.
Street life with its freedom, and lack of family control is not without its repercussions; the end result is anomie - individuals stripped of all morals, tribal mores and traditions. Out-of-school boys may yield to the ecitement and sense of belonging offered by membership in deliquent youth gangs.
Adolescent girls drift naturally into early marriage, unwanted teenage pregnancies/abortion, frequent childbearing and a new generation of impoverishment. Others may take up prostitution. considering that it brings a much higher income than they could otherwise earn and thereby join the ever-increasing people contracting HIV/AIDS and other Secually Transmitted Diseases [STDS].
The issue of abandoned babies and infants is gradually becoming a problem in this country and may continue to be worse unless measures are taken to redress the fundamental factor of a supportive family system in the modern society.
Thus there are increasing numbers of vulnerable families, including not only single-parent families headed by poor women, but also poor families with elderly members or those with disabilities.
In line with the above analysis measures have to be taken to re-examine the implication of the effect of modernization on the family structure [i.e. the extended family system] for the Ghanaian child. The issue is what can be done to arrest this situation? One principal factor to be considered is the education for life as well as through out life.
It is in this light that the current adjustments being made in the existing educational structure in Ghana is important. However, there is much to be done in the establishment of many more schools particularly in the rural areas with the necessary support of facilities and motivated teachers to dispense of their duties effectively.
This would mean a greater percentage of government funds being allocated to educational reform programmes but it must be borne in mind that such funds are not just expenditure buy a highly productive investment.
The effectiveness of the Government's educational reforms and national economic development will to a large extend depend on the extent to which couples would embrace the Family Planning programme. The educational and other facilities provided by the Government would have to be paid for by parents and guardians. Large families also prevent couples from saving, thereby leading to low economic investment. Under such conditions the standard of living continues to fall and the issue of child abuse and neglect would continue to hang like an albatross around the neck of the nation.
In addition to this, measures must be taken to develop the national economy and, where necessary to ensure a more equitable distribution of the national wealth to provide more social welfare services and promote community involvement in education. This is essential if children are to continue their education and not be forced to abandon it for economic reasons.
To arrest the menace of child abuse and neglect, the Government, Non-Governmental Agencies, Religious/Social Groups, Parents, and Teachers, must all work in concert to enchance the proper development of the Ghanaian child. Government must evolve policies and programmes and create the right atmosphere that will enable children to develop their potential. The other groups must complement the Government's efforts with education and other activities that will engage the attention of the youth. Parents must also ensure that they give their children the necessary guidance as well as facilities and support to enable them to develop into mature and responsible adults. The provision of Family Life Education for both In-School and Out-of-School Youth Groups must be given the desired support [both financial and moral] and attention, if we are to minimise the impact of the breakdown of the traditional extended family system.