ADMITTEDLY, THE data may be incomplete, but the statistics provided by the Women's Centre Foundation of Jamaica is cause for concern even as we note the broad strides being made against teenage pregnancies in Jamaica.
Indeed, as was noted in the Sunday Gleaner's report of June 4, pregnancies among girls 15 years and under have declined sharply in recent years by over 60 per cent between 1999 and 2004, when the number of births to girls in that age group dropped from 709 to 278, according to data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
That is good. It suggests, as do other demographic data, that Jamaica is making headway in dealing with the problems facing adolescents and the broader, important matter of family life education and social responsibility.
But these numbers may mask a deeper, and growing problem. For according to the Women's Centre Foundation, in the 2005/2006 financial year, 58 thirteen-year-old girls accessed its services; that is, these are girls who became pregnant and went to the foundation's centres for help.
The gross number, it may be argued, is relatively small. But critically, the figure represents a 41 per cent hike in the number of pregnancies among thirteen-year-olds seen by the Women Centre Foundation over a four-year period.
It should be borne in mind, too, that these centres do not see all the thirteen-year-olds and preteen girls who become pregnant. So, it could be, as has been suggested by some social workers, that we are really seeing only the tip of the proverbial iceberg in this matter.
Of particular concern and worry is the claim that most of these children are being made pregnant by mature men, sexual predators, who care little about the consequences of their actions. Children of 13, in the context of our society, are, we insist, incapable of managing the consequences of sex and motherhood. No thirteen-year-old child should be made to bear such burdens.
We hear the calls of child-care activists, who worry about this problem, for stiffer penalties for men who have sex and otherwise abuse under-aged girls. There may be merit to tougher laws, but we remain unconvinced that this is the solution.
Indeed, we recall in the 1980s when the matter of incest and the sexual abuse of children was similarly on the agenda, the minister then responsible for such matters famously raised the age of consent to 16.
That might have been an important initiative, but it unfortunately did not deal with the problem. For, like the previous laws, this, too, remained unpoliced, which, we believe is the problem.
There is legislation on the books that remains unenforced. If men who have sex with under-aged girls were relatively certain that the law would take action against them and that there would be penalties, even those now on the books, they would likely consider the potential of their behaviour before acting.
But beyond legal penalties for such abuse there has to be societal sanctions. Instead of the code of silence that so often accompanies sexual abuse, there has to be outrage in the community and family - the precincts within which so much of this abuse takes place.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
