HUMANS as well as animals are equipped with instincts to enable them to take care of their offspring. Few disruptions to this instinct occur in the animal kingdom, which lead them to kill their own young to eat them. It is inexplicable though when humans’ instinct as well as rational thinking is obstructed to the extent that leads them to hurt and kill their own children. Child abuse and neglect, which could lead to the child’s death, is a sad reality that is found all over the world and has been recently recognized as a serious social issue in Saudi Arabia.
Child abuse is generally defined as “any act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation.”
Child neglect, on the other hand, is very difficult to define and is much harder to notice as abuse is. Nevertheless, child welfare experts divide neglect into categories, which include inadequate supervision, drug exposure, physical, medical, environmental, emotional and educational neglect.
Loving our children is barely enough to raise physically and emotionally healthy individuals because parents also need to learn how to express their love and the limits of how tough their “love” can get when they want to discipline their child.
Learning about the appropriate disciplining methods and being aware of how easily neglect can occur even when parents do not intend any harm is essential to children’s wellbeing. Thus, it truly takes a village to protect a child because in addition to the child’s caretakers, the collaboration of government institutions, health and mental health professionals, educators, religious leaders, extended family members and responsible citizens is needed to raise awareness and protect children from abuse and neglect. Justifying abuse by “cultural relativism” or claiming that it is a “private family matter” when it causes a child to be hospitalized or leads to a child’s death should not be accepted nor tolerated.
In an effort to dealing with this problem in Saudi Arabia, the “National Family and Safety Program” was created by a Royal decree in 2005. Its mission includes raising awareness as well as preventing domestic violence in which women and children are commonly the victims. Some of their efforts include influencing Saudi laws, treating abused victims, and conducting research and training programs. A great milestone was achieved last year in preventing domestic abuse in general in Saudi Arabia when a law was passed on legally banning domestic abuse, which include penalyzing abusers and providing shelters for the victims.
Child neglect, on the other hand, has not been nationally addressed or even broadly identified yet in Saudi Arabia. For example, putting a child in a car safety seat is considered one of the mild cases of neglect, albeit essential to protect a baby’s life in case of accidents is rarely done in Saudi society. To begin with, there is no law to require it and some parents even seem to have the idea that it is cruel to put a baby alone in a car safety seat!
One of the ways that could help parents recognize and prevent neglect is to distribute manuals about preventing child neglect to new parents in hospitals, which would include, for example, the importance of putting a baby in a car’s safety seat, the necessity of leaving a baby with a qualified nanny if needed, and attending to a child’s medical needs as soon as they arise to prevent further complications that would lead to hospitalization.
Some sociologists argue that children are in more danger than soldiers are in combat because they expect to be in a safe environment and not equipped to defend themselves as soldiers are. Taking care of children does not come as naturally as people might think; parents have to learn how to take care of their children physically and emotionally.
The help of teachers, health professionals as well as family and community members is invaluable in preventing child abuse and neglect. The cultural assumption that raising a child is a private matter should be eradicated and replaced instead by valuing child’s safety and dignity.
The annual number of child deaths as a result of abuse is horrific regardless of how big or small the number is because each number represents a child whose life might have been saved had a family member intervened or had a teacher reported a suspected case of abuse.
It is almost impossible to completely stop child abuse and neglect, but we can all cooperate as a society to minimize it. It would be worth the effort even if we save just one child because the suffering or death of one child is one too many.
