Mahabir-Wyatt lashes out:

FORMER Independent Senator Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Against Domestic Violence (TTCAD), yesterday said she warned the authorities that if they don’t deal with the issue of domestic violence, “we were going to end up with a violent society.”

Mahabir-Wyatt said this while making a presentation at a Legal Aid seminar, which was sparsely attended, at the TTMA Building in Barataria, on the theme: “Using The Law to Protect Against Domestic Violence.” “We’ve been talking since the ’80s about domestic violence, but nobody was listening. Now in 2006, we have a very violent society.”

She said violence was learnt, in the home when a child is beaten for misbehaving and in school for not paying attention. “Some children learn best by talking instead of being told to ‘shut up and copy what is written on the board.’ Teachers have no excuse to not know this. Violence against schoolchildren to learn, reduces their capacity to learn more,” stated Mahabir-Wyatt.

She emphasised that punishment ought to be in the form of teaching the right things instead of physically hurting children. Several times during her presentation, Wyatt-Mahabir made reference to the death of four-year-old Emily Anamanthodo and how it could have been avoided. “People hear women and children bawling and screaming and don’t report it.”

She wondered why not and, moreso, why hospital personnel don’t report cases of abuse. “Hospitals say they don’t report domestic violence because they have no time to spend at police stations making reports and then to go to court for cases. That is a sick society. What kind of culture is this?”

She also lamented that the penalties for using children for prostitution are not as grave as the penalties for arson. “People don’t take domestic violence as seriously as they take other crimes but domestic violence is a criminal offence,” she said.

Among the areas of grave concern for Mahabir-Wyatt is that of community policing. She said what is really needed was more community policing. At one time, she said, there were 400 community police officers but now this has whittled down to 40, “if so many.”

“We also need more social workers and qualified counsellors to deal with the amount of cases of domestic violence and abuse. Instead we are building a new stadium while children are being hurt.”