In the 1980s, then Minister of Social Security Dr Neville Gallimore consistently reminded people that society is best judged by how it treats its most vulnerable, not least the elderly and very young.

He wasn’t pleased about Jamaica’s performance in those respects back then. He probably would be even less so now were he still alive.

Even those elderly people with a decent monthly pension are growing increasingly anxious as inflation soars.

Imagine, then, those without a pension, who must rely on the woefully thin, threadbare, security blanket provided by the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and related provisions.

Then there are those who, for whatever reason, aren’t covered by any of those programmes.

We are reminded of the latter unfortunates in yesterday’s Sunday Observer — an article which tells of 77-year-old farm produce vendor Ms Kathleen Mendez, who is as yet not even on PATH because of bureaucratic delays.

As has been said repeatedly over many years, the situation cries out for a scheme of some sort to better provide for the poor and elderly.

Truth be told, the situation is at least as parlous for many children and young people.

In May, Child Month, this newspaper focused on overwhelming challenges for children, including crime and violence, parental neglect, widespread poverty which not only hinders sating of the most basic needs such as nutrition and accommodation, but also education and training.

We are also reminded in yesterday’s Sunday Observer article headlined ‘Don’t wait until students are killed!’ that the absence of basic, public infrastructure endangers children.

The article focuses on the lack of proper facilities, including sidewalks and guardrails, on de Carteret Road and its environs in Mandeville, where several schools are located.

Principals of Belair High School and de Carteret College, Mr Lawrence Rowe and Mrs Prim Lewis, respectively, as well as councillor for the Mandeville Division, Mr Jones Oliphant (PNP), feelingly told this newspaper of futile efforts down the years to correct the inadequacies on the busy but dangerously narrow road.

Mr Rowe reminds us that he has consistently called for the area to be classified as a “school zone”. Such a categorisation, complete with appropriate signage and traffic calming methodologies would, at the very least, put motorists on high alert.

As news archives will show, this newspaper and other news media outlets have recorded such appeals, which picked up intensity in 2017 after a 14-year-old student died — hit by a passing car as she attempted to cross the road.

Yet, to date, the only improvement has been a pedestrian shelter.

Mr Rowe tells us that, “I personally wrote to the National Works Agency and the Member of Parliament at the time, Peter Bunting. I wrote to the mayor, Donovan Mitchell. They came, they looked at the place, and they made representation. The only thing I got out of that was the pedestrian shelter…”

Such challenges for our children, and the failure of the State to adequately address them, aren’t confined to Mandeville. People know of such unresolved problems all across this country.

Far too many Jamaican parents and guardians are guilty of child neglect and abuse. But the stark, ugly truth is that in some respects, the State is just as guilty.