Linnette VassellTHE CALL to act right, love, and protect our children is being made to all of us through a Ministry of Health campaign that was launched recently to promote awareness of the provisions of the Child Care and Protection Act. Hopefully this campaign will prompt strong action to address in a sustained manner, the ugly realities that our children face and secure their rights in practice.
All of us can take part in this campaign at some level and I am particularly interested in adding the matter of advancing the basic right of children to their identity and dignity as fundamental part of this campaign. In this regard, we need to ensure that all children are properly and officially registered from birth; and secondly, that all birth registrations have the names of both mother and father in short, we need to secure compulsory registration of fathers. These are measures, falling within the purview of the Ministry of Health itself, that are fundamental to the rights of children to have a sense of their identity and to be honoured and protected.
CHILDREN NOT REGISTERED
The problem of "children not being registered" seems to be quite prevalent across the country. In general, when the mother gives birth at a hospital for example, a listing of the birth by mother's name (and in rare cases, including the father) along with a birth registration number is sent to the Registrar General's Department (RGD). At that stage, there is no naming of the child so the identity is not established. The required procedure is that the parent should return to the hospital or the birth and deaths registration centre nearest to her place of residence at a later date to have the birth notification completed. This is done with the addition of the child's name and any other details and then the birth notification is completed with the issuing of the 'pink slip'. When this procedure is not followed, the child has no identify by name and the parents have no certification of the child's birth.
This situation, which prevails right across the country, sets in train a number of problems for the child. There is the difficulty of the parent getting the child registered for school, particularly from the primary level and in some instances this leads to the child being kept away from school altogether. There is also the matter of the child not being taken for immunisation because of some fear on the part of the parent. Sometimes, incorrect information is given on the child and from time to time, we read of instances in which a child's eligibility to enter sporting competitions is subject to questioning. All these consequences negatively affect our children.
We have some direct experience of these problems from our work in the Lyndhurst/Greenwich area in Kingston. In a special birth registration outreach programme, sponsored by the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC) in partnership with volunteers from the Webster Memorial United Church and the Coalition for Community Participation in Governance, over 150 persons, mainly women, came to seek support. Data on some 180 persons, the vast majority children, was recorded and this shows that of that number, 25 or 14 per cent had not been registered and are seeking late registration.
As is the case with the majority in Jamaica, the parents, overwhelmingly single mothers, are hard-pressed to find the $3,100, a sum well above the weekly minimum wage, to meet the cost for this service.
Investigations shows that cost is a major challenge why the procedure is not followed in the first place. In most cases the hospital fees for the birth would not have been paid and therefore there is reluctance to return to complete the birth registration. There is clearly a need for a sustained campaign involving all parties, including the RGD, the hospitals, health centres and civil society organisations to solve the related issues. We need for example to spread the word that it is against the law for the hospital to withhold this birth notification and to refuse to issue the pink slip which is an official verification. We cannot overlook the fact that some parents are quite careless about these matters and do not make the effort, and that many of the young first-time mothers, do not know the procedure. We must also take into account that many mothers do not have the required support of the family, including the fathers, at that most crucial stage. The campaign must include a drastic reduction in fees for completing late registration of births within a specified time frame. This is one measure to ameliorate the situation.
COMPULSORY REGISTRATION
Another is to move on the matter of the compulsory registration of fathers. This is a most controversial issue, and one that women's organisations in Jamaica have been grappling with since the late 19th century. In continuing that struggle, Amy Bailey, a noted Jamaican nationalist feminist, successfully influenced the Jamaica Federation of Women to pose the compulsory registration of fathers as an issue in the country's first elections in 1944. In the end, the campaign was abandoned in mid-stream. Today, it is estimated that some 75 per cent to 80 per cent of Jamaican fathers do not have their names recorded on their children's birth certificates and there is no legal requirement that would accord to men recognition of their rightful claim as fathers.
SERIOUS BARRIERS
Discussions on the matter reveal that there are some serious barriers in the way. We have to struggle against the induced complacency of both men and women on this issue. In most cases, we are told, the men feel that they cannot take the time to go with their partners to have their names recorded on the birth certificates. It is not that they are disputing paternity or waiting for some influential female relative to affirm that they are the fathers, but that the significance of this responsibility is not sufficiently stressed in our society. Further, the woman, especially if she is not legally married to the father, has little or no basis to demand that the man registers his name as the father of her child. Indeed, in the context of our historical development, she is particularly vulnerable in such interpersonal relationships unless she has some measure of economic, social and emotional support. This is not the case with the majority of women.
Vulnerability and fear are factors that make the declaration of paternity a knotty issues for both men and women. For example, the woman might have doubts about who the father is and may name as the father a man she favours. In other instances, the father or mother might be in another relationship or a man might dispute paternity because of anxiety to avoid being "given a jacket" as we say in common parlance. These difficult issues and their painful consequences are not unconnected with our propensity as adults to participate in irresponsible human behaviour. However, this should not deter us from doing what's right for our children who are not at fault, but are the ones who suffer most severely for our actions.
We ourselves in WROC will continue our work to support the women and their families to address these issues. We are open to broad collaboration with all sectors to advance the rights of children and the family in these particular areas.
As we approach our commemoration of Emancipation and the celebration of our national independence, let us strip off another layer of the mask that has entrapped us in negative personal and interpersonal relations for generations. This agenda and the broad vision that would support it, would weigh heavily in my evaluation of any person fit for leadership of party or country.
Linnette Vassell is a consultant on development issues who can be reached
at cvas@cwjamaica.com.
