Abandoning babies, especially day-olds in our society is an ugly phenomenon which we should not overlook. There are some reasons for these acts which have received little attention from the government. Most of the girls or ladies that men take advantage of are from broken homes which is also a major problem in our society. A home where the parents are not together or there is always fighting and quarrels and misunderstanding; their children who are females will see it as an opportunity because neither the mother nor father has time for them and they also get little care from them. These girls easily fall into the hands of men who sleep with them, resulting in pregnancy which they are not ready for, having the mindset to dump the baby and continue their prostitution because most of them are not planning to become mothers at that time. Another reason is the issue of poverty and lack of financial stability. Even those who are of marriageable ages give birth to babies and decide to dump them because they are not financially stable. Most of them don’t even have the money to take care of themselves, not to talk of taking take of their babies, which usually result, in broken marriages.
The third reason, mainly prostitution, sexual intercourse with men for money and this sometimes results in pregnancy. They wouldn’t want to keep the babies because it will affect their lives and hinder them from the trade of prostitution. Some of them will not want to put the babies in orphanages because of the money to avoid questioning, so they decide to dump them or even leave them in the hospitals where they give birth and run away.
The government should not overlook these issues but proffer solutions to them immediately because it is becoming rampant in the society. In whatever way it is being said or done, it is evil and the government should frown on it. Some of those babies are lucky because someone would see them by the roadside and decide to pick them and take care of them or sometimes take them to orphanages.
The solutions to these problems will start from families. Parents should endeavour to stay together in peace. They should also avoid fighting and even divorce because it affects their children in a bad way. And when a parent is single, it will be very difficult to take care of the children alone which is not also good for them.
Another solution is that government should establish an organization or a platform where married women will be able to advise young ladies and especially young girls in the universities about the issue of extramarital affairs, sex before marriage, prostitution and so on.
Also, churches and mosques should start preaching on moral discipline and they should also counsel singles and teenagers to avoid sex if they are not ready to get married. They should not just get married and start having babies when they are not ready to take care of them.
With these, the society would be free from dumping babies in street and the society would be a better place to live in.
Also, young girls should be given the opportunity to express their minds on things they don’t know and what is going on with them. Education is the key to success because most girls leave school to go into prostitution and many contact deadly diseases from these and infect others causing crises in the society.
Favour Johnson,
Ibadan
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