By NATASHA IMAN
alltherage@thestar.com.my

Recently, in a bid to improve my Japanese language skills, I turned to watching Japanese dramas.

In my onerous search to find Japanese dramas with appropriate English subtitles, I came across a drama with an interesting title, “14 Sai No Haha”, which is loosely translated as “Fourteen-Year-Old Mother”.

Initially, I was expecting some long-winded synopsis on the drama, but the description simply said: “A 14-year-old junior high school student’s life is turned upside down when she becomes pregnant and decides to keep the baby.”

The drama has 11 episodes and each episode chronicles the obstacles and implications that arise when one is pregnant at such a young age.

While watching it, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of denial towards the whole situation. In my mind, there is no way a 14-year-old girl would be impregnated, and in such circumstances, she wouldn’t be allowed to keep the child.

However, in the drama, the teenager does indeed end up delivering the child, and her parents, who have come to terms with her situation, allowed her to raise the child.

In the final episode these were words flashed for a brief moment: “This drama is a work of fiction.”

I stared at that sentence for a while, pondering whether situations like these are purely fictional or do they actually happen.

Moments later, it hit me. A situation like this really does exist.

News headlines such as “The trials of teen mothers” and “Teen probed for throwing baby from window” can be seen in our papers every other week as we are faced with the ever-growing problem of teenage pregnancy. In most reported cases, these hapless young women even attempt to abandon their newborns in the most harrowing ways.

I believe that if you are old and mature enough to commit the actual deed, you should be old enough to face the consequences of your action.

It is hard to comprehend the fact that a 14-year-old who willingly engages in coitus does not understand what such actions leads to.

I may not condone such acts among children, but something needs to be done in order to educate and protect young people that are in a quandary over what they should do when a less than desirable consequence develops.

People have a tendency of pointing fingers at youth who are in such situations, but at times, I can’t help but wonder whether such things would occur if they had been presented with the notion that having sex is not something you do on a whim or a fancy night out with friends.

Of course, with the proposal of introducing sex education in our schools still on the fence, topics surrounding sex remain a taboo.

Being conservative is part of the Malaysian culture, especially in a child-to-parent relationship where conversations about sex consist of phrases like “the birds and the bees” and is often followed by a whole lot of giggling.

Instead of dwelling on the fact that some people feel sex education may lead to more promiscuity, I’d like to think that us youth could really benefit from learning about these issues early on.

I’ve heard endless amusing stories of friends enduring “the talk” from their parents. In most cases, these talks have either come out successful, or both parties gave up halfway through and attempt to avoid the situation before things became too awkward.

Speaking from the perspective of an adolescent, I believe that youth are more than willing to listen if those that are trying to communicate such sensitive issues tackle it in a profound way.

The importance and gravity of the action and consequences of having sex need to be stressed and of course, archaic terms and ornate language need to be left behind.

Be it the intervention from a teacher or parent, enough information should be given to encourage protection and provide youths with options if such a situation occured. However, they should not condone the act itself.

Without proper education and awareness, young mothers can only see one way of escaping their problems – by abandoning, or worse, dumping their baby.
The Government has suggested capital punishment on the mother as a plausible solution to prevent further baby dumping cases. But it takes two to tango, so why aren’t both the people involved in the situation, also taking the responsibility for it? Why should we only charge the mother?

There is a natural disinclination with bringing the fathers of these newborn children into the picture. We rarely hear about the fathers of unwanted babies, but we always read about the unfortunate mother getting caught in the act of abandoning her child.

A lot of measures have also been taken to counsel the girls/young mothers but what about instilling a sense of responsibility among the boys who are part of the problem, too?

Still, it is safe to say that we have taken a positive step into tackling baby dumping in Malaysia.

Schools for pregnant teens have been established and Malaysia’s very first baby hatch was introduced last year as a place where unwanted babies can be dropped off safely into the hands of caretakers.

These are all possible paths to take once one has found themselves in such a situation, however is enough being done to prevent the problem from occurring at the earliest stage possible?

Prevention is always better than cure, so why not go the extra mile to prevent teenage pregnancies first?

You can never go wrong with education. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”