WHEN Zambia, through the Judiciary, stiffened the penalty for defilement by setting a 15-year jail term as minimum sentence, the idea was to try and strengthen the girl-child protection system.
This was in the wake of defilement cases which were reported almost on a daily basis. It was felt then that this form of heavy punishment would, therefore, serve as a deterrent to would-be offenders.
Today, the courts have effected this measure and, in some cases, defilers have been handed sentences some of them as long as 30 years behind bars.
The question now is whether this heavy punishment is serving the purpose it was intended for, namely, curtailing defilements?
Looking at the cases still being reported, as well as court convictions for the same offence, the answer is a categorical ‘no’.
Instead of decreasing, reports of defilements have actually been on the increase in the country as an inter-ministerial taskforce on early marriages currently on a tour of Luapula Province has found out.
In Mansa at one-stop centre, for instance, more than 1,500 defilement cases have so far been reported this year, and more are likely to be recorded before the year-end. The same applies to other parts of the country, both in the rural and urban areas.
The culprits are mainly males of all ages, that is to say teenagers, young men and the old who pounce on girls below the age of consent, including the toddlers. Marrying off an under-age girl is part of this vice.
In some instances even people calling themselves pastors have been implicated in this act, as they have committed the offence under cover of praying for young girls who they later defile.
Other people do commit the crime on advice from traditional men and women they consult in their quest for instant wealth or the cure for various ailments.
Other drivers of the vice are pornography which is now easily accessed even on mobile phones, prostitution, and sex trafficking, all of which are illegal and against the cultural norms of this country.
Where defilements result into unwanted pregnancies, young girls resort to illegal abortions, which the Zambian society equally does not promote as they put at risk the lives of teenagers involved, as well as their unborn babies who die in the process.
What is alarming is that there are even other men who go all the way outside of their marriage to defile young girls.
No matter who engages in this heinous crime, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and children born to single young moms have been some of the results.
Other end results are broken homes as some spouses fail to stomach the stark reality of continuing to keep up with some men with such an extreme sexually immoral behaviour and resort to divorces.
In the Zambian society where sexual perversions, whether heterosexual or homosexual, are not embraced, never promoted, defilers should expect worse treatment in respect of the long arm of the law.
A few years ago, women’s rights activists in the country suggested that castrating rapists, including defilers, could be the only effective measure to deter would-be girl-child molesters.
This sounds quite a bit too harsh. However, if lengthy jail-term sentences by the courts or counseling prove too inadequate an antidote, girl-child rights activists may be justified to prescribe other methods that could possibly stop this cancer.