NIKHOL CRUZ CEPEDA doesn’t look like a victim of child abuse. She has a wide, sparkling smile, enjoys spending time with her family and close circle of friends, and is doing well at school. Like any young teenager, she is a little shy when you first start talking to her, but she warms up quickly and is soon chatting happily about maybe working in science when she completes her studies.

    Her mother, Wandalee, is a devoted single parent who works hard at her job in a busy Puerto Rico car rental agency, in order to send her 14-year-old to one of the island’s best private schools. She says she has no bigger priority than steering her daughter towards adulthood in a happy, healthy and safe environment.

    Yet under a controversial new law that might soon be adopted by the Puerto Rico Government, Nikhol’s mother could be branded a child abuser, with social workers and officials from the U.S. territory’s department of education combing through the family’s affairs.

    The reason is that Nikhol, at 206 pounds (93.4 kg), is considered to be obese. And under the terms of the proposed legislation, which many experts say is unfair and unenforceable, her mother could be fined up to US$800 if Nikhol fails to lose weight.

    “I could lose my daughter because I feed her?” Wandalee said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s the culture in Puerto Rico. You see a skinny baby and people will say it needs feeding up. Is that really child abuse?”

    What many families see as a cultural issue, others consider a national health crisis, supported by statistics from recent studies that show rates of childhood obesity on the island running anywhere from 24 percent to 30 percent. That compares to an average of 17 percent across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Such figures prompted Senator Gilbert Rodriguez Valle, one of Puerto Rico’s youngest and most popular politicians, to introduce the contentious bill which seeks to create a “healthy child program.”

    If the bill became law, obese children would be identified in schools, and their families “educated” about the health risks and consequences of remaining overweight.

    If social workers believed there had been no progress after six months, they would have the authority to open a child neglect case and impose a fine of US$500; if after a year they believed things were the same, another fine of US$800 could be levied.

    Critics say the government is encroaching on territory it has no right to occupy. (SD-Agencies)