'Boy child neglect creating imbalanced families, society'

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Church of Uganda's Busoga Diocese has urged the Government to review the gender equality policy saying it has neglected boy children who have in the long run turned into irresponsible men.

According to the Rev. Irene Namazzi, girls are stuck with irresponsible men as a result of neglecting them by putting much emphasis on empowering both the girls and women.

She says the Government and the non-governmental world were mainly targeting the girl child leaving the boys in suspense.

The clergy stated that the failure to give them due attention was driving them into peer groups and many end up abusing drugs and alcohol. 

“We thank God for this far we have come from as women and the girls but in the process, there are challenges being encountered when empowered girls or women were finding irresponsible men who were not of marriage material as a result of being neglected under the gender policy,” she said.

The prelate made the remarks during prayers at Christ’s Cathedral Bugembe which is the main seat of the diocesan headquarters located in Jinja city northern division where Namazzi was the guest preacher to Anglicans on Tuesday.

Namazzi, the Chaplain at Wanyange Girls Senior Secondary School, which is one of the traditional institutions under Busoga Diocese expressed fear that the trend would render girls not to have men who would marry them.

“This is where my heart bleeds most for neglecting a boy child, let us wake up and do the same as is with the girls because when they meet men who have not been empowered of their roles, we would be breeding single mothers,” she noted.

The clergy noted that as parents, they were also not doing enough right from their homes saying the time given to the girls should be the same with boys and that this is how they would build a country with responsible citizens who give God honour.

“I am also a mother with a son and I take care of him to ensure that he is a responsible boy. Any quality which should be in a girl should as well be in a boy by creating a generation of responsible men and women by teaching them house chores together,” she urged.

Historical bias

Meanwhile Kiira Police region spokesperson James Mubi concurred with Namazzi saying the policy was enacted due to what he termed as the historical injustices on women and girls.

In an interview, Mubi said there was too much gender bias and exclusion from going to schools, at work as girls remained at home and that the empowerment aimed at addressing such deliberate restrictions.

However, he likened the empowerment to a person who washes clothes and dries them on bare soils saying the policy had already created an imbalance.

Whereas the girls were being empowered, Mubi said they were finding men who were ill prepared and very aggressive.

“This imbalance of preparing a very good girl who lands on a wolf who will behead, chop her limbs or private parts as a result of preparing one side should be revisited,” he noted.

Mubi said the situation had sparked domestic violence, crime rates and child neglect yet in the past, the communities were not schooled a lot but managed to look after their families.

“Today, we have PhD holders who are not looking after families, the illiterates and literates are the same. You find a professor neglecting his children and a Primary Two dropout doing the same because of living in an interconnected world,” he noted.

More broken families

As police, Mubi said they had seen an rise in single mothers, marriage and relationship breakups emphasizing the need to groom and mentor both girls and boys equally.

Also, Mubi said attributed incidents of street children to irresponsible men.

“These children have turned a society problem yet they don’t come from heaven, it is after men sleeping with women and deny taking responsibility,” he stated.

Long overdue

Busoga diocese Fathers Union president Dr Edward Kasuti said it was long overdue to review the affirmative action policy.

Bishop Paul Naimanhye in 2022 as he interacted with Dr. Edward Kasuti, the president fathers union who said the gender equality policy review was long overdue. (Photo by Jackie Nambogga)

Biblically, he said God created the world and handed it to man who had been left behind as the affirmative action policy prioritised the girls whom he said were getting married to thugs, goons and unprepared men.

Kasuti said the Government needs to come up with another strategy of moving all people in the same direction.

He said the diocese had designed a boy child empowerment programme in which they would be convening workshops and visiting schools to inspire them.

Working at a girls’ school, Namazzi said the biggest challenge faced by girls is of absentee fathers.

However, Kasuti said they would also incorporate the girls and see a father figure speaking to them on how to be progressive in their lives.

Selective provision of needs

Whereas there were vulnerable boys, Sarah Namatovu, a teacher at Nakanyonyi Primary School in Jinja city northern division said parents tend to favour girls in terms of provision of scholastic materials.

“We have seen parents providing uniforms to the girls leaving the boys in tattered shorts because they can persevere, this is evidenced in primary schools,” she noted.

Stephen Wante, the former LC3 chairperson of then Bugembe town council in Jinja district, said the policy was nondiscriminatory but as men, they seemed contented until they have realised the gap.

“Women have greatly been empowered based on the programmes with 95% targeting them and girls but we have not seen that of men and the boy child,” he stated.

Whereas the state minister for energy Phiona Nyamutoro suffered criticism for getting married to singer Edirisa Muzuusa (Eddy Kenzo) based on their levels of education, Wante said her empowerment enabled her to settle for the character in him.

Since boys and men had been ignored, Wante said they were likely to have imbalanced families and societies.

“Men have roles to play as men and women have defined roles but majority girls have been empowered in all areas such as skilling, building their morals and physical character which was not the case with boys,” he regretted.

Accordingly, Wante said this would create a generation of men impregnating women and girls and leave them to take care of children single handedly.

He called for collective responsibility of all stakeholders such as the church which he said plays a very big role in shaping society based on the platforms they use during the various social gatherings.