Mmegi

The boy child crisis

By the wayside: The troubles boys go through at an early stage and later in life often play second fiddle to the challenges girls face
By the wayside: The troubles boys go through at an early stage and later in life often play second fiddle to the challenges girls face

As Botswana continues to grapple with gender disparities, buried in all the data that focuses on women empowerment is a disparaging and worrying trend of worsening conditions of the boy child. While much of the national discourse has rightly focused on empowering girls and closing the gender gap, new evidence suggests that boys are increasingly falling behind, raising critical questions about the inclusivity and effectiveness of current gender policies, write TIMOTHY LEWANIKA and SHARON MATHALA

Societies power structure have traditionally been skewed to favour men, with the means of production, and the economic artefacts of society in favour of patriarchal norms of society that place men at the forefront, to the disadvantage of their female counterparts.

While in the past years, society has made progressive efforts to improve the conditions of the girl child, it is becoming strikingly clear thaT the boy child also remains in the margins of society catching hell like their female counterparts.

Editor's Comment
Child protection needs more than prevailing laws

The rise in defilement and missing persons cases, particularly over the recent festive period, points not merely to a failure of policing, but to a profound and widespread societal crisis. Whilst the Police chief’s plea is rightly directed at parents, the root of this emergency runs deeper, demanding a collective response from every corner of our community. Marathe’s observations paint a picture of neglect with children left alone for...

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