INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE BOY CHILD

 

The International Day of the Boy Child should remind us of our collective guilt in neglecting the boy-child, which have led us to the spate of insecurity bedeviling the nation from all angles and in all directions.

 As we celebrate the International Day of the Boy Child this year, let us reflect on the dangers of the neglect the boy-child.

 Let us look towards taking definite actions to addressing the neglect of the boy child. Let us summon the courage to end the phenomenon of street children by whatever name called.

 Let us protect our boys as much as we protect our girls.

I wonder how many people are aware of the fact that there is an International Day of the Boy Child. Perhaps we are all obsessed with protecting our daughters that our focuses have always been on the “girl child”.

But there is an International Day of the Boy Child. It is the 16th of May every year.

It was officially adopted by the United Nations in 2018, which was five years ago. The pioneer in the struggle to focus attention on the boy child is Jerome Teelucksingh.

A lecturer in History at the University of West Indies, Jerome is also the founder of the International Men’s Day, which is celebrated on the 19th of November, every year. He is known for his commitment to gender mainstreaming and inclusion.

 He has been passionate about building an inclusive society.

According to the founder of International Day of the Boy Child, the day is not to be marked as one to oppose the focus on the girl child, but rather to compliment it.

This was the same position he took when proposing the International Men’s Day. It is not about opposition but rather about inclusion. We must all accept the fact that as a society, we really need to mainstream our boys and protect them, as much as we do for our girls, while keeping the balance.

Boys are becoming more vulnerable because, apart from physical abuse, including cases of sodomy, there is also the psychological torture that boys go through in patriarchal societies. Worst still is the neglect, the abandonment and recruitment into terror gangs and criminal conclaves.

In a patriarchal society such as ours, a boy is expected to be macho, fend for himself at an early age, get a job, marry a wife and maintain a family. In some societies an adult male who still stays in his parent’s house is called a woman by his peers.

Boys must be boys, no matter what. But with all these expectations, several boys are on the streets without homes or even families.

 Whether as an “almajiri” in the North, “Area Boy” or “Alaye” in Lagos and the South-West, or by whatever name they are called, street children are minors who live, survive and grow on the streets, and most of them are boys.

 They are street-working and they consider those on the street as their families. Being homeless and unloved, they are often rugged but equally vulnerable.