CHILDREN AT RISK

More than a third of Asia’s population is under eighteen years old. Many of these children live in conditions that put their basic health, development and sometimes their very lives at risk.

Sometimes these conditions are the result of natural disasters like earthquakes or annual floods, but they can also arise because parents are authoritarian or indifferent to victimised children. Children can also be at risk because of poverty, which goes hand in hand with malnutrition, disease and illiteracy. In order to survive, families send children out to work, often at hazardous jobs that damage their health, keep them from school and deprive them of normal childhood experiences. Many become rag-pickers and street children, engaging in social vices like stealing, gambling and professional begging. They sleep in the streets, eat from garbage bins and are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.

It is not only the children of the poor who are at risk. Children from middle- and upper-middle-class families often live in stressful conditions and have to deal with absentee parents who have migrated overseas for employment, consumerist lifestyles and easy access to pornography, drugs and alcohol. The children of divorced parents are sometimes brought up in hostels or by relatives or maids, and have become prime candidates for suicide.

The conditions described above may seem to conflict with the high view of the family, children and education enshrined in ancient religious and cultural traditions in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. But other aspects of these traditions undermine the positive teaching. For example, the caste system relegates underprivileged, sick and disabled children to a vicious cycle of dependency and despair. Their lot is made worse by the assumption that this is their karma, their fate or lot in life, or is a result of some curse or demonic activity. Customs like the devadasi system in temples endorse child prostitution, and child sacrifice is still practised in a few areas. Exploitative practices like child marriage with dowry are still observed, and unwanted girls endure discrimination and even abandonment. Sex trafficking and child labour are rampant. Turning children into terrorists in the name of religion is also on the rise.

There is an urgent need for intervention to protect children. We must address their basic needs and must also deal with the root causes of their suffering, including corrupt governments, social evils within a patriarchal structure and illiteracy. We must work to transform lives through prevention, health care, rehabilitation, education and community projects.

Asian Christians have developed a biblical and theological framework for ministry to children at risk. We recognise that all children are created in God’s image and that “children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him” (Ps 127:3). They are thus to be welcomed and loved. The God whom we serve is a compassionate Father, who is angered when children face discrimination and injustice and orders his people to care for them (Exod 22:22-24; Luke17:2). More than that, God presents children as examples to us, as when Jesus placed a child among his disciples (Matt 18:1-6).

Children are not merely beings we should pity; they are model members of Jesus’ kingdom. When we view them in this light, we will take time to care for them and listen to their stories, questions and dreams.

In Asia, there is a growing movement to encourage Christian mission to children to give them a future full of hope. The church and society are being sensitised to the spiritual receptivity of this age group. Theological institutions are offering specialised courses and degrees for those eager to work with children. We are working to define the child’s needs and rights in the family and school, and Christian non-governmental organisations are networking with government agencies to research, formulate and implement child protection policies. Volunteers are being recruited to muster human and material resources. The issues are being discussed and training is being given in child advocacy and good governance of the resources allotted to help children at risk.

Our goal should be to strive to offer children a risk-free, friendly and fearless world in which they may not just survive but thrive and flourish, living freely and fully as God intended.