As I was returning from my routine morning brisk walk, I got to a point which was about 800m from my house. Suddenly, a few feet away ahead of me I saw a smallish black hen being chased by a big cockerel.

In a moment it caught up with her and hopped onto her back pinning her to the floor and start ­ed mating. Not even my closeness to them dissuad­ed the cockerel from carry­ing on with his activity.

It suddenly reminded me of teenage pregnancy and rape of house helps driven by lust of men who cannot control their sexual urge.

What even filled me with anger and at the same time saddened me was the posture of the cockerel, after finishing his lustful activity, while the smallish hen was struggling to get up from the ground and regain her composure.

It reminded me of those days in the Zongo where young girls were married to men old enough to even be their grandfathers which to me was evil.

The psychological and social cost of teenage preg­nancy to the nation is very huge. The contribution of every single individual is vi­tal for the growth of every nation.

The potential of people can only be fully realised within the right environ­ment of peace and psycho­logical stability.

A psychologically broken person can never amount to much and the nation will be poorer if she has a lot of such people since their potential which they could have unleashed for national development, is shelved.

Women and therefore girls are by nature more susceptible to emotional stress and are therefore severely affected by trau­matic experiences like rape which in a lot of instances, result in pregnancy.

A woman who was the wife of a Pastor, shared her story of how she was raped in a parking lot in the USA and the effect it had on her psyche. You can imagine what such an experience can do to a young innocent girl.

Apart from the psycho­logical issues, we are going to have to contend with children raising children contrary to the norm of adults raising children.

The chances of a child carrying a baby and deliv­ering safely is very small. There is a high probability of losing both the pregnant child and her baby and who knows what they could have achieved for this country.

Could it be the loss of a future Kofi Annan, a Rebec­ca Akufo-Addo, Rita Akosua Dickson etc? On the other hand, the likelihood of pick pockets, armed robbers, prostitutes, drug addicts, contract killers etc. result­ing from teenage pregnan­cy is a huge social burden on the nation and must be addressed.

The effect of the ac­tivities of these group of people, what we normally refer to as social miscre­ants, on the development of this country, is incalcu­lable.

A deliberate policy of in­culcating positive values of respect for females by the male child must be serious­ly embarked upon.

Severe punishment re­gime must be put in place for men who indulge in this negative social practic­es especially fathers who sleep with their children. Adequate protection must be provided for house helps who are more vulnerable to domestic sexual predators.

Horrifying stories of house helps being taken advantage of abounds and serious attention must be paid to this issue which is very dear to my heart.

The initiatives of the state to curtail child mar­riage which mostly takes place in the northern part of the country must be strengthened to ensure that our female children are protected.

Furthermore, with sodomy rearing its ugly head and homosexuality in general, something serious needs to be done to hold in check the lust of some men as well as some women to whom our children’s care are entrusted.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah