Parental Care, street children and the law in Zambia

Abstract

The number of Children in the Streets in Zambia has been increasing with time. One notices at walking along the streets of town that there are far too many children than ever before. This is clearly a problem which needs to be regulated by law before it goes far beyond control. It is important to state in this regard, that the law as it stands today Is not adequate to effectively address the problem. This paper puts across suggestions with regard to law reform so as to ease the problem of street’ children. The paper does, however, acknowledge the fact that though we may have the best law in place today it can only be used to limited extent in the sense that the implementation may not be as effective as intended, especially where such implementation requires the imprisonment of the Parent or Guardian of the children who at the same time has a duty to provide necessaries for the same children, where the penalty concerns fining, the same complexities may arise in the sense that after a parent who falls to supply necessaries for children is fined, it is the children themselves who will continue suffering. This way the law may prove very ineffective. The situation can however be different where there is a developed Social welfare system and a generally stable economy where even after imprisoning the parent or guardian, or fining him the children would not be disadvantaged, we however need laws which will be adequate and directly responsive to the problem of street children in Zambia.