Child safety to be given maximum priority

Sharjah

I want to narrate a first-hand account of two recent incidents I witnessed, regarding the negligence of parents.

Even though the issue has somewhat subsided, there have been numerous community reports and news pieces regarding children’s safety. It has been emphasised too many times, yet it fills me with regret when we see tragedies that could have been easily avoided.

The first incident was a few days ago, when I saw a man taking his child by the hand and jaywalking. As if this was not bad enough, he made his child walk on the narrow divider between two roads, which is not only violating the law, but is also extremely hazardous for the child. This scene left me in a state of shock.

Yet, an even more alarming incident occurred when I was returning home and noticed a young girl left alone in a parked vehicle. She was dangerously balancing on one of the windows that had been left open. There was no one else in the car and the child was performing dangerous stunts; sometimes sitting on the window, sometimes dangerously leaning down to the road. I was so shocked that I instantly began searching for her parents, but in vain. Not only was it bad enough to leave the child vulnerable in the car, but it was worse that there was no one to supervise her actions or look after her if any mishap took place.

Various infographics, illustrated news reports and alarming figures have been shown to the public time and again, yet such activities exist and ignorance is pertinent to the accidents that occur.

I hope that the example of these two scenes witnessed by me is testimony enough to make readers aware about the mammoth consequences of a few moments of negligence.

I came across these two cases in the span of a few days and they were both a result of sheer ignorance. I believe that child safety is a serious issue. There have been so many cases where a child’s safety wasn’t given enough attention and it could have been potentially fatal. This has to stop. There is no other way around it, no shortcut. Vigilance is the key to good parenting and is the only solution to such horrendous happenings.

— The reader is a student based in Sharjah.

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