MW gvt to imprison parents who fail to take care of their children

Poverty is not enough reason to send children unto the streets as doing so infringes their rights to education as every child needs to stay in school and taken care of.

Malawi’s Minister of Gender and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati, has warned that parents who fail to take care of their children and send them to the streets to beg for alms instead will be punished and jailed for 10 years.

The firebrand minister says this according to the Child Care Protection and Justice Act that was established in 2010.

The minister has meanwhile given two weeks to all the parents with street kids to remove their children off the streets, saying if they fail to do so they risk facing the long arm of the law.

Speaking during a press briefing aimed at discussing how to remove street kids on the roads of the country, Kaliati said the street kids are infringing on people’s rights.

She also said that her ministry has been removing kids off the streets, but parents allegedly continue to send them back to beg for alms as one way of generating money for their families.

Kaliati said that street kids face torture as gangsters use them to carry out their criminal activities, such as robbing people, selling drugs, or being raped just to mention but a few.

She further stated that poverty is not enough reason to send children unto the streets as doing so infringes their rights to education as every child needs to stay in school and taken care of.

The minister also encouraged parents to make use of the European Union’s Cash Transfer Program to keep their children in school as program now targets 15 % of people in all 28 districts of the country.