A deepening crisis

The 22-year-old officer was one of five females, most of them 12 to 19, whom parents, relatives and friends have not seen nor heard from this past week since they left their homes to go about their normal business.

It’s what prompts us to return to this issue of the missing, especially girls.

Surely the energy and goodwill of the local celebrations of International Women’s Day can be directed at solutions to TT’s crisis of missing girls.

In cases where girls abscond from home, the reasons and remedies must be discussed by us as a society, with initiatives lodged to stem such. Parents, schools, NGOs, academia and governance must address this issue, with perhaps an agency like Childline having a specific sub-remit to offer counselling all around on child runaways, akin to the UK agency, Re-unite.

In line with an age of consent of 18, the law must deal very harshly with grown men taking advantage of a runaway girl and those who might initially have lured her away from home.

While a child gradually becomes an adult - in those transition years of adolescence - there is certainly a danger of a young female physically appearing to be matured, yet psychologically immature and ill-equipped to fend off the attentions of older males.

Astonishingly in this highly sexualised culture of Carnival, dancehall and pornography, most State schools do not offer a comprehensive programme of Human and Family Life Education. In this context, it should be remembered that an educated student can best make wise choices to stay safe.

For example, youngsters must be warned of the danger of strangers entering their living room via their smartphone and/or social media.

While a girl may feel she is running away from problems at home, she must be told of fresh hazards she may meet on the street such as sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction and violence.

A girl may be lured away by an older man, become pregnant and then be ditched by him. Girls run away often after conflicts with parents, when facing abuse (physical, emotional or sexual) at home often by a family-member, when undergoing a personal crisis (such as unwanted pregnancy), or due to drug or alcohol abuse by a family member and/or the girl herself.

Signs of a child at risk include her having unexplained gifts or money, secretive behaviour, staying out late, drug/ alcohol use, depression, and new friends.

We encourage parents and children to cut each other some slack at home, each recognising the other’s stresses and need for space. We would hope that spaces can be provided for our girls – whether at the homes of trusted relatives or by bodies such as sports clubs and places of worship – as a release-valve of the pressure to run away.

Just as some of these matters have been resolved recently with the missing either making contact or actually turning up safely, so do we hope would be the case with all those who have been reported missing this past week.

But we cannot help feeling that we are facing a deepening crisis of missing girls.