CATEGORY:COMMENTARY ----------------------- By Wallace J.A Inside Grenada correspondent Sunday January 28,2007 THERE is a need for Grenadians and people from throughout the regional community to start paying more serious attention to the problems associated with underage pregnancies. From time to time, young girls – under the age of 16 years - become pregnant and oftentimes, adult males are responsible for the impregnation. Under the law, a girl under the age of 16 cannot give consent to have sexual intercourse, therefore, an adult male having sexual relations with a minor is guilty of committing statutory rape – a serious sexual offence. During the course of this week, the amount of young girls in Grenada who become pregnant every year became a major talking point. This was obviously as a result of discussions which took place on a very popular television program on Monday night. The discussions surrounded the very contentious issue of whether a pregnant young girl should remain in the secondary school system with the rest of her peers to complete her education or whether she should be asked to leave and continue her studies at the Program for Adolescent Mothers (PAM). While most attention was focused on whether or not the young girl should be in school, there is a much broader picture that should be considered and must not be overlooked. This has to do with society’s apparent failure to deal effectively with the root causes of a problem that can have very serious socio-economic repercussions for us in the future if urgent steps are not taken to address the situation immediately. Apart from the physical and psychological ills that may afflict the victims of underage pregnancies, these unwitting young girls can inadvertently find themselves inextricably trapped in a vicious poverty cycle which can, in itself, breed a myriad of moral, social and economic difficulties for our country to grapple with. In many instances, mothers / guardians are aware of the sexual exploitation of their underage girls but do not report the cases to the relevant authorities nor take urgent action to stamp out the practice. In some cases, nothing is done because mothers/ guardians stand to loose either financially or emotionally if the culprits are reported. This can place the ‘hapless victims’ in a state of mind where they feel powerless to deal with the situation and they may continue to tolerate the sexual abuse. Recently, a judge in Puerto Rico ruled that a woman whose boyfriend impregnated her daughter will stand trial for negligence. The young girl was only 11 years old when she became pregnant. DNA tests proved that the woman’s boyfriend was the father of the girl’s now 18 month-old son. Maybe we need to take a page from this judge’s book and really start doing a better job of protecting our vulnerable underage girls in Grenada. Of equal seriousness is the fact that too many of our parents /guardians in Grenada seem to have adopted a sort of laissez-faire approach to parenting and allow their children to do whatever they want without any sort of guidance or correction, when the occasion demands such. Bad parenting can and has contributed significantly towards the apparent increase in juvenile delinquency in Grenada. But we should not just stop there and think the problem will just disappear or simply dissipate into thin air nor should we burdened ourselves with the delusion that we do not have an important role to play in purging this great evil from our land. For far too long, we have seen this problem unfolding before our very eyes and many of us, either through lack of foresight or because we house a cold and selfish heart within our outwardly human bodies, fail to do our part in exorcising this ‘demon’ from among us. We all have an indispensable part to play in addressing this problem – politicians, ministry officials, churches, schools, parents, the private and public sector workers and every other group and individual in our society. We each have a moral and religious duty to educate our young people properly, and while we try very hard to protect their rights, we need to also spend equal time teaching them about the awesome responsibilities that go along with these rights. They need to learn that well or else we will be doing them a tremendous injustice. It is their RIGHT to receive GOOD TRAINING so that society can benefit from their positive contributions. Also, our policy-makers need to realize that they do not necessarily have to try and completely model our educational and social policies after that of some countries where there seem to be an apparent breakdown in moral and religious standards. We need to learn from the mistakes of these ‘developed’ nations. We can not afford to always wait until things start to happen and then try to address them. Our policy-makers appear to lack vision and foresight and seem to be only good at reacting to situations or copying policies developed by other countries, even with the overt shortcomings. It is time that these bureaucrats prove to us why they earn the hefty salaries we pay them. As a people, we too have our part to play on this stage. We need to report cases of abuse in our society and choose to become our neighbor’s keeper. Additionally, we have to provide our children with love and attention and collectively provide them with a sound moral education while, at the same time, we teach them how to behave and act responsibly. We must never be afraid to correct them when they do wrong and should not defend them and offer excuses for their behavior. If these things are done, then we should witness a positive change in our society. Not only will we then cease to be hypocrites, but we will also be effectively addressing a wide range of societal ills, one of which will be that of under-age pregnancy. If you are one of the persons who believe in law and order and would never compromise your religious and moral values, then you need to stand up and do something. Do you have the courage and tenacity to stand up and fight for a better society? You can become a catalyst for positive change in our country. The ball is in your court.