I WAS aghast when I read about an incident in India, where a couple sold their infant son so that they could buy the latest model phone and make social media content.
If I had seen this on social media, I would perhaps have not believed it but since it was in the newspapers, and I read it again and again and concluded it was true.
We have often heard of impoverished people selling their children to make ends meet or to pay for medical treatment but this was on another level.
Children are a blessing from God and when such a thing happens it defies all logic.
On November 20, 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This international convention, ratified so far by 193 countries, recognises that “in all countries of the world there are children who live in very difficult circumstances, and that these require special consideration”.
Bahrain became a part of this on February 13, 1992.
Bahrain, aware of the importance of advancing children’s affairs, taking care of their issues, protecting their rights and working to provide them with the necessary care, established the National Centre for Child Protection, a social care institution affiliated with the Social Development Ministry, and the Social Welfare Department, which protects children up to the age of from all forms of abuse and neglect – sexual, psychological and severe neglect.
Zuhair A Tawfiqi