SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Over 500 busi­ness­es have an­nounced they will be closed to­day as mur­der vic­tim An­drea Bharatt is laid to rest.

The de­ci­sion to shut down comes af­ter over a hun­dred demon­stra­tions across the coun­try to high­light vi­o­lence against women and call for leg­is­la­tors to pass nec­es­sary laws to cause it to cease.

Bharatt, 23, was kid­napped on Jan­u­ary 29 and her de­com­pos­ing body was found in the Heights of Aripo one week lat­er on Feb­ru­ary 4.

The shut­down stems from a call made by a group, An Act for Change, which want­ed women to stay away from work.

Oth­er demon­stra­tors turned it in­to a call for work­places to shut down en­tire­ly.

By noon yes­ter­day, lists be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia with the names of busi­ness­es who an­nounced their de­ci­sions to close and by late yes­ter­day that list grew to over 500, made up of main­ly small and medi­um-sized busi­ness­es.

Among those re­main­ing closed are Xtra Foods Su­per­mar­kets, au­to parts stores, in­sur­ance en­ter­pris­es, food out­lets, cos­met­ic/fash­ion stores, hard­ware, med­ical labs and le­gal ser­vices. One agri­cul­tur­al out­fit is clos­ing for three days.

A woman lights a candle at a vigil for Andrea Bharatt during a candle light vigil in Freeport last night.

SHARLENE RAMPERSAD

List com­piled from so­cial me­dia posts

At­tor­ney at law, Kan­dace Bharath-Na­hous told Guardian Me­dia she and a col­league com­piled the list, tak­ing hours to do so, us­ing Face­book posts.

“One page had a few run­ning posts, where the busi­ness­es were list­ed and they al­so had, for the most part, pho­tos of mes­sages that the busi­ness­es would have sent to them, con­firm­ing they were clos­ing and then with­in the com­ments on those posts, with the list, oth­er busi­ness­es have con­firmed they are clos­ing and I have al­so re­ceived prob­a­bly 100 mes­sages from Face­book and What­sApp from busi­ness­es that have con­firmed that they are clos­ing to­mor­row,” Bharath-Na­hous said.

Asked why she be­gan putting to­geth­er the list, she said, “I think that we were all as a na­tion rocked by the re­cent events. The tip­ping point was the bru­tal mur­der of An­drea and be­fore her, Ashan­ti. I say tip­ping point be­cause this is where many peo­ple, in­clud­ing my­self, feel that this sit­u­a­tion can­not go on. As a woman, I do not feel safe in my coun­try, in my home, in my of­fice…any­where re­al­ly and I would have been the vic­tim of crime on two oc­ca­sions at least.”

She said she be­lieves An­drea’s mur­der has to be the point where the coun­try unites and puts aside its po­lit­i­cal be­liefs to call for re­al change.

Busi­ness­man Ganesh Diptee was one of the first to an­nounce yes­ter­day that his busi­ness place, Diptee’s Hard­ware, would be closed to­day.

He sent out a call to the rest of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, say­ing, “I would like to ask oth­er busi­ness peo­ple to join in­to this move­ment to keep it at the top of the agen­da of the pow­ers that be so that changes can be ef­fect­ed.”

A woman carries a candle during a vigil in Penal last night.

Rishi Ragoonath

White rib­bon ini­tia­tive

Sec­ondary school teacher, Seema Suraj, who or­gan­ised last Sun­day’s mo­tor­cade from Ch­agua­nas to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah is call­ing on cit­i­zens to wear a white rib­bon to­day in Bharatt’s mem­o­ry.

Suraj said she will be sup­port­ing the call to stay away from work and will spend her day in demon­stra­tions around the Sa­van­nah and in front of the Par­lia­ment.

She said the white rib­bon ini­tia­tive came about as a way to show sup­port for those who have been abused or at­tacked.

“I see the need for peo­ple to have a plat­form to be com­fort­able to speak about their ex­pe­ri­ences and we will be there to pro­vide sup­port to em­pow­er them—it’s not just for women but men and chil­dren too,” Suraj said.

She will of­fi­cial­ly launch the ini­tia­tive next Sat­ur­day.

Mean­while, one of the founders of ‘An Act to Change, Na­dia Ju­man has sent out a call for ra­dio sta­tions to play up­lift­ing mu­sic all day to­day.

Ju­man sug­gest­ed among them, the song ‘No Greater Time,’ a col­lab­o­ra­tive mu­sic project cre­at­ed by over 35 lo­cal mu­si­cians.

“We need lyrics that have an up­lift­ing vibe to sup­port the move­ment to spread the word that we need uni­ty to bring about change, this is a cri­sis of vi­o­lence,” Ju­man said.

One man has since been charged for her mur­der, while two sus­pects have died in po­lice cus­tody. A woman has al­so been charged with re­ceiv­ing stolen items.