Jail certain if your child falls to death in UAE

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Despite efforts taken by authorities to prevent incidents of children falling from high rise buildings such accidents continue to happen in various parts of the emirate.

The latest incident is that of a three-year-old Pakistani girl A. E. Hajji who died after she fell from the seventh floor of a building in Al Qasimiya area in Sharjah on Monday night.

According to the police they received information about the incident at 9pm and rushed to the area where they found the girl lying in a pool of blood.

Wadeema a law to protect children

Article No. 35 of the new draft law which will be effective mid June will penalise parents whose children die from high rises or any other kind of child abuse said the official at the child protection department at the Ministry of Social Development.

The girl's body was shifted to the forensic laboratory for further investigation.

This is considered the third such case this year alone the earlier ones being the that of an eight-year-old Syrian girl who died after falling from the eighth-floor apartment in Al Tawun area of Sharjah and the death of a Pakistani girl who fell from a third floor window of her building in Sharjah in January.

A top official at the Sharjah Police noted that these frequent and tragic incidents "leave a painful and unfortunate impact on the lives of many families."

He added that despite many awareness campaigns and repeated warnings from police such incidents continue to happen.

This suggests that "some parents don't learn a lesson" he said stressing that lack of safety measures in homes is the main problem facing parents and their children.

The new law

The new Wadeema draft law will prosecute parents who neglect their children resulting in death.

Article No. 35 of the new draft law which will be effective mid June will penalise parents whose children die from high rises or any other kind of child abuse said the official at the child protection department at the Ministry of Social Development.

The official also warned parents not to leave children unattended at home and not to depend on housemaids.

According to statistics the number of children falling from high rise buildings in on the increase.

The year 2015 witnessed seven fatal child falls as compared to six fatalities from falls in 2014 and four in 2013.

The official added that parents' negligence could indirectly cause various kinds of harm to children.

The law will penalise neglecting parents with imprisonment and hefty fines.

In case of repeated negligence and if the child is found to be exposed to abuse frequently which threatens his life the department will interfere and take away the child temporary from his parents and send to him to a foster family or social establishment to ensure his safety.

Article No 60 of the Wadeema draft law also stipulate fines of Dh5000 for parents who neglect children and prison for not less than a year.

Precautionary measures

The Sharjah Civil Defence in coordination with the Sharjah Municipality recently introduced new specifications for all new residential buildings and under construction buildings and modification of old ones to protect children from falling.

The new regulations make it mandatory on owners of old buildings to install protections on windows and to raise the height of balcony walls from 1.2 metres to 1.5 metres.

Brig. Abdullah Al suwaidi Director-General of Sharjah Civil Defence said windows in old buildings must not be at a height of less than one metre from the floor.

Afkar Abdullah