What parents should do to check juvenile delinquency

It’s really sad to see young boys paraded as ‘Panya road’ heading to jails for juvenile delinquency. The so code-named “Panya road” are mostly young boys who have been terrorizing people in the most brutal ways in parts of Dar es Salaam.

Some of them after they were arrested, by looking at their photos could be even under 15 years old. The big question here is, how did such young boys, who are supposed to be in school become what they are claimed to be--dangerous criminals? Where are their parents or guardians? If at all the claims are true, what pushed them into such small monsters? There are too many questions than answers.

One of the major causes of juvenile delinquency is a lack of moral guidance. We expect that those children who are brought up in a morally upright society, also uphold the moral codes, that their parents follow.

But in some cases, the children are neglected and grow up in violent situations or in cases where they see crimes being committed every day.

For example, kids being forced by parents to beg for money in the streets and taking the loot to their guardians, most people expect nothing good can come out of them. As they grow up, they grow bold in going the extra mile by changing from begging to robbing, which means they end up doing more crimes that are more darling.

Yes, some parents do their roles and give their children the best upbringing. But, because children don’t live in isolation from society, they sometimes meet the wrong people hence end up being influenced into committing crimes. Imagine the good mothers who have done the best for their children, but only to find out they have been influenced to join groups like “Panya road” and at the end of the day, they have to go and face the law.

The other day, we celebrated Mother’s Day, and for the mothers with their children in jail, hospitals, or in unfortunate situations, it must have felt terrible.

A mother’s biggest joy is the happiness of her children. And a child in jail or correctional facilities for committing crimes, it must be a really hard time for the parents or guardians, more so for the mothers.

Someone sent me an email on Mother’s Day, saying: “To raise a child filled with kindness is a priceless gift you give to the world.” This is a very insightful statement. Yes, kind people only bring goodness to the world. They don’t seek to hurt others, only to do good and help others. If the world was full of kind people, there would be no wars, robberies etc.

To all mothers, it’s important always to make sure our children are “human,” as much as we want them to be of a strong character.

We also want them to have the values that make life worth it including being truthful, humble, kind, fair etc.

We have seen at schools the boy child befriending the girl child, and when the girl falls pregnant, she stops school while the boy goes on with his education.

Boys who are morally upright and kind will never want to destroy the educational prospects of the girl child. Likewise, we have seen young girls after they fall pregnant, chose abortion as an escape route. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I am of the school of thought that even unborn children should be treated well. In life, one cannot practice cruelty and kindness at the same time. Most acts that harm humans are cruel.

Stealing, robbery, rape, murder etc are acts of cruelty to fellow humans. I wish if those committing crimes instead of being dominated by cruelty and evil in their hearts could be full of kindness; the world could have been a better place for everyone.