We have often reported that this country has laws but the problem is that these laws are often not enforced. Most common among these laws are those that involve trafficking in persons and until recently, the Human Services Ministry was tasked with halting this aspect of life in Guyana.
In the outlying areas where jobs are so scarce that people are tempted to anything, women in particular fall prey to this. In this corner of the world the men are somewhat laidback in that they do not pay attention to house-keeping.
As far as many of them are concerned, theirs is the job to father the children, but the responsibility for the children's upkeep rests with the mothers.
It is for this reason that we have the untenable situation of women raising children, all of whom may have different fathers.
This is particularly the case among poor women. They see men as a meal ticket and they therefore trade their bodies. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is often not a limiting factor because we tend so often to hear what we want to; then the woman is most likely to believe him.
Having taken the man at his word the sexual encounters are often unprotected, leading to the pregnancies. This too should not be the case since the various non-governmental organisations and the social organisations all spend time and vast sums of money preaching the virtues of safe sex.
It could be that the social level of the person is one inhibiting factor. Some women who come from the lower echelons of the society would often perpetuate the view that they were put on the earth to be fruitful and to multiply. To undertake this task they cannot indulge in safe sex.
In cases where women hold their bodies in high esteem these women attempt to seek honest employment. These are the ones who are prone to the lure of jobs somewhere other than home. These are the young women who then find themselves working in sleazy bars as waitresses with a duty to indulge in sexual favours with the patrons.
We are surprised that many of the women who find themselves in this position do not complain to the authorities, seek prosecutions and even pursue compensation.
At the same time, the law enforcement officers rarely take the time to enquire of the welfare of some of these waitresses. Some may argue that our culture actually prevents us from investigating women since we are supposed to think the best about any woman.
We also have a law that deals with truancy but from the look of things, it is normal to see school-aged children roaming the streets at any time of the day. Both the police and the education authorities appear to turn a blind eye to these children. The argument is that it takes too much time and paperwork, something that these officials seem bent on avoiding.
But Guyana is a signatory to the various conventions that guarantee the rights of the child. Our participants at the various international forums that deal with these issues insist on pledging support and on honouring these rights.
Because of these things, it boggles the mind that we could ignore those children who for one reason or the other, find themselves offering themselves as labourers in the market place.
The law further stipulates that parents could be held liable for the truant child. Enforcing this aspect of the law is easier said than done.
The international community would be hard pressed to understand our reticence given that we are among the most vocal in international arenas.
Indeed we are a poor country and we do not have the necessary support mechanisms for some of the programmes, but we should not hesitate to use those at our disposal.
Just last month the government announced that its goal is 100 per cent functional literacy in Guyana. But with the way we ignore the truants and those parents who deliberately keep their children away from school we may be pouring money down a drain.
We are advocating a forum to examine those laws that are observed in the breach and to work to have the necessary supporting mechanisms in place.
A lot needs to be done and while we are a poor country struggling to create an image for people expected to visit us in the coming days we need to look further ahead and do those things that could permanently enhance our reputation.