Suzanne Shep­pard

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is im­ple­ment­ing a promise she made one year ago, months be­fore she was elect­ed to this coun­try's high­est po­lit­i­cal of­fice-es­tab­lish­ment of a Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women to ad­dress so­cio-eco­nom­ic is­sues af­fect­ing women in this coun­try. Per­sad-Bisses­sar first men­tioned the ini­tia­tive in March 2010 when, as Leader of the Op­po­si­tion, she ad­dressed an In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day func­tion host­ed by the In­ter Club of Trinidad and To­ba­go. At that time, she promised the Com­mis­sion would be on the agen­da of her ad­min­is­tra­tion if she ever be­came Prime Min­is­ter.

On Thurs­day evening, as she host­ed a tea in cel­e­bra­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann's, Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that the Com­mis­sion would be a per­ma­nent part of the gov­er­nance land­scape "to tack­le key ob­sta­cles to women in our coun­try, with a spe­cial fo­cus on pover­ty and crime and vi­o­lence." She said the Com­mis­sion will en­sure that women in this coun­try have equal ac­cess to em­ploy­ment, health, ed­u­ca­tion, train­ing tech­nol­o­gy and hous­ing. Per­sad-Bisses­sar told the large group of women at the event: "To­day, I want to tell you that we are in­deed well un­der­way to es­tab­lish­ing this Na­tion­al Women's Com­mis­sion and very soon with your help, we will launch this Com­mis­sion.

"But be­fore we do this, in my on­go­ing com­mit­ment to na­tion­al con­sul­ta­tion, I will like to let you know that with­in three weeks, Cab­i­net will be asked to ap­prove a con­sul­ta­tion for women re­gard­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of this Com­mis­sion." The Prime Min­is­ter al­so an­nounced the ap­point­ment of two spe­cial en­voys on women and chil­dren's is­sues to the Com­mon­wealth Caribbean. They are so­cial and women's rights ac­tivist Hazel Brown, and Bren­da Gopeesingh, a com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist and found­ing mem­ber of the Hin­du Women's Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The spe­cial en­voys will, among oth­er things, pro­mote the val­ues and prin­ci­ples of the Com­mon­wealth on women's and chil­dren's af­fairs to lo­cal and re­gion­al NGOs and oth­er stake­hold­ers; li­aise with the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at to pro­mote women's and chil­dren's af­fairs at var­i­ous con­fer­ences and sem­i­nars in the Caribbean; and as­sist gov­ern­ment and stake­hold­ers in sourc­ing fund­ing from var­i­ous re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al sources to pro­mote gen­der equal­i­ty and chil­dren's rights.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in less than one year in of­fice, her gov­ern­ment had made an equal place for women and girls a ma­jor pri­or­i­ty. She said women now fill more than 60 per cent of class­room space at ter­tiary lev­el in T&T; 28 per cent of the coun­try's Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and 25 per cent of lo­cal gov­ern­ment prac­ti­tion­ers are women. "Gov­ern­ment re­mains com­mit­ted to the goal of greater gen­der eq­ui­ty and gen­der main­stream­ing," she said. "We will con­tin­ue to cham­pi­on the elim­i­na­tion of all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion against women by pro­mot­ing gen­der eq­ui­ty en­forced by strong leg­is­la­tion and poli­cies.

"We will work to­ward com­bat­ing sex­u­al ha­rass­ment in the work­place and en­sur­ing equal pay for equal work." The Prime Min­is­ter de­clared that 2011 is a year of trans­for­ma­tion and pos­i­tive change for women and for the coun­try.