Is Namibia Doing Enough To Address Baby Dumping?

A teenager makes an unwise decision. She has sex with her boyfriend without using protection. A learner enters into a relationship with her teacher who offers her good marks if she agrees to have sex with him. A 20-year-old woman is raped by her uncle but she is too afraid to tell anyone what happened to her or who the father is. All three become pregnant. What will the future be for the unborn children of these women? A loving home, or being left to cry all alone in the veld, being flushed down the toilet or being unknowingly sold to be groomed, in ten years’ time, into prostitution?

WHY do people take the desperate step of dumping or selling their babies? The answer is not easy to determine. In many of the cases when a dumped baby is found, the parent goes undetected and unassisted. Few people who dump their baby would come forward to discuss the issue even if we asked them to. However, efforts are underway to decipher the problem. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare and the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, with the support of UNICEF and the Legal Assistance Centre, conducted a nationwide poll asking the public why baby dumping is such a problem in Namibia and how the government can address it. The questions were published in The Namibian and Die Republikein newspaper and interested persons were asked to respond by text message. Input from the public was anonymous and confidential, allowing anyone who wanted to respond to give their input. This innovative form of research allowed us to access far more people than could ever have been reached through focus group discussions or one-on-one interviews. Analysis of the results is underway and the results will be published in 2012. Whilst the root causes of the problem are being considered, we note that government is already taking steps to address the problem. The Ministry of Education has a new policy for the prevention and management of learner pregnancy. The main focus of the policy is prevention of learner pregnancy, including the encouragement of abstinence and the communication of values such as gender equality and respect for individual autonomy.However, whilst the policy is an excellent example of a proactive approach to the problem, despite the policy being approved by Cabinet in 2009, effective implementation of the policy is lacking. The Ministry of Education should do more to roll out this policy throughout the country. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, with support from UNICEF and the Legal Assistance Centre, is working to address the problem of baby dumping through legislative reform. Under the current law, a person who dumps their baby could be convicted of a crime against an infant (in addition to other crimes such as murder, attempted murder, culpable homicide, exposing a child or concealment of birth).However, under the forthcoming Child Care and Protection Bill, provided that the baby does not show signs of abuse, neglect or malnutrition, a person who leaves a baby in the physical control of a person at a hospital, police station, fire station, school, place of safety, children’s home or other prescribed place will not be prosecuted. This provision recognises that dumping a baby is often a cry for help and that punishment is not the answer to the problem. The Child Care and Protection Bill also includes provisions on foster care, kinship care and adoption. The concept of adoption is not well understood or well supported in Namibia. This must be addressed to help prevent misunderstandings and to ensure that people are able to choose this option if it is the right one for them. Adoption is when a person takes care of a child on a permanent basis. When a child is adopted, the parent no longer has any legal rights or responsibilities towards the child. Because adoption involves severing all legal ties between the biological parent and child, the adoption process is carefully managed. Anyone who wants to give a child up for adoption must receive counseling. The child will also receive counseling and give input into the decision, if of an appropriate age, maturity and stage of development.The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare will keep a register of prospective adoptive parents. When a child is to be given up for adoption, the register will be checked to see whether there is a suitable family waiting to adopt a child. This is because adoption is not about a parent picking the child they want for their family. Adoption is about picking a family for the child. The best interests of a child must always be at the centre of decisions we make for them. Another protection in the adoption process is the prohibition of advertisements dealing with the placement or adoption of a specific child. This provision stops the situation of ‘baby shopping’ and will also help to prevent situations where child traffickers use such adverts to identify potential children for exploitation. When the life of a child is in question, we cannot underestimate the safeguards we need to protect our children. The problem of baby dumping will not go away overnight. We need to change the story of the lives of women in Namibia. Before our teenager makes an unwise decision, we need her to pause and consider the information on sex education she should have received at school. Before our learner enters into a relationship with her teacher she should know that teacher-learner relationships are prohibited.To reduce the incidence of rape, we need everyone to understand the meaning of rape and to know and respect the boundaries. When a woman becomes pregnant we must make sure that she knows what her options are if she does not want the baby. We must encourage fathers to take responsibility for their children. Government and civil society have taken steps to address the problem of baby dumping but it is not enough. The policy on the prevention and management of learner pregnancy must be better implemented. The Child Care and Protection Bill must be taken to Parliament and passed as a matter of urgency. More must be done to address poverty in Namibia. Every time a baby is dumped it is a cry for help. How long will Namibia cry before real, not partial, change is made?