Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
In 2006, Pauline Bharat’s world shattered when her six-year-old son, Sean Luke, was violently murdered a stone’s throw from his Henry Street home. The murder which attracted regional and local attention was recorded as one of the country’s most brutal and barbaric.
Still awaiting justice for the savage killing, Bharat, 62, is faced with another battle. Her vision is fading in her left eye.
She spends sleepless nights and agonising days thinking of what her life has become over the years, first losing her innocent son and now her sight.
Bharat approached the Government for a food card and disability grant but was rejected. Using her sewing machine, Bharat earned a livelihood.
Now she depends on the generosity of family and friends to pay her medical bills and buy food, as she can no longer support herself.
“I am scared. I prefer death to being a burden to anyone,” Bharat said, as tears streamed down her face during her interview with the Sunday Guardian.
“Being partially blind is a burden. That is what scares me. What is scary is that things I could have seen a few months ago now look hazy.”
Wiping away tears, Bharat, who lives alone said, “I was never a burden to anyone. I always fended for myself. Now I am losing hope and my sight.”
Although Bharat has crossed the age of 60, she is not entitled to a monthly $3,000 NIS grant, as she never paid contributions. She will have to wait three more years before she qualifies for a senior citizen grant or pension.
Her sewing machine, which she used to make Indian wear, blankets, bed sheets, drapes, curtains, stuffed toys and dog beds for the community, is gathering dust in a room at her Couva home.
“I can’t see to thread the needle in the machine. I can’t make out faces. I don’t see straight lines anymore. My vision is distorted,” she complained. “It would be difficult for me to find a job, given my situation.”
People who have their vision, Bharat said, would not understand her plight.
“They would know the emotions of happiness, sadness and anger. But unless you go blind you will not understand how I am feeling.”
After going through 18 years of pain, grief and agony over the loss of her son, Bharat said she often wondered if she would receive justice for his murder.
A diabetic for the past seven years, Bharatt said her life has reached its lowest ebb.
On March 28, 2006, the country woke up to the shocking murder of Luke whose lifeless body was found in a cane field metres from his home two days after he went missing. An autopsy showed Luke died of internal injuries arising from being sodomised with a cane stalk.
Although Akeel Mitchell and Richard Chatoo were convicted of Luke’s murder by Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds, the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial for the two men in 2022 because of several serious errors made by the judge who delivered their guilty verdicts.
Mitchell and Chatoo were ages 13 and 16 at the time of the alleged offence.
“It has been a difficult road for me to walk on. It’s not an easy road. Since I lost my son, my life took a different turn... a road filled with sadness,” Bharat said.
Luke was her pride and joy. Tears flowed as she passed her hands over a few cherished photographs of Luke in a mini album. The pictures are Bharat’s only memories of her son.
“I can’t even see Seany’s face properly anymore. It’s just a hazy image,” she whispered under her breath.
To lose her son and then her vision has been too much.
“It’s horrible in both ways,” Bharat said.
Two years ago, Bharat was yanking a crowbar from the ground when the iron slipped from her hands and struck her eye which became swollen and bloodshot.
“It kept bleeding internally,” she recalled.
Her vision then became blurry which bothered Bharat to no end. She visited a private ophthalmologist who told her both eyes had diabetic macular oedema (DME) with exudates.
DME is an eye condition that develops when excessive fluid builds up in the macular causing it to swell. It may also cause vision loss.
“The bleeding just didn’t want to stop, and it was recommended that I inject the eye to treat it,” Bharat said.
Desperate to improve her vision, she took 24 injections, each costing $1,000. The swelling was reduced but her vision never improved.
“Financially I am drained. I am tired and I am thinking... let the eye go as it is going... and just die if I have to die with it,” she said.
Unable to support herself, she applied for a disability grant.
“I joined a clinic at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex and got a referral letter from a doctor which I took back to the Ministry of Social Development office in Chaguanas.”
By then, she said, the right eye had become strained.
At that point, Bharat felt optimistic that help would have come her way.
However, her optimism turned into disappointment after her application was turned down.
She also applied for a food card.
“That too was rejected. They didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me why it was turned down. The system sucks. The Government has no empathy. These are people, like wolves, who show their fangs when they smile.”
After the murder of her son, Bharat said she fought her battles alone and never asked the State for handouts or assistance.
“I have never asked anybody for help. I have never asked this Government for no help,” she said.
The one time she did, she was turned away.
Bharat said she doesn’t like making her business public but her back is against a wall.
She said during the 18 years she has struggled with her son’s murder, she was unfairly treated and judged by society.
“The system treated me as if I was the wrong one... like a criminal.”
The Sunday Guardian contacted Minister of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox about Bharat’s issue. Cox enquired about Bharat’s matter and was informed in a WhatsApp message by her ministry which she forwarded to this reporter.
It stated that Bharat was seen by a social worker officer and “the board did not accept the medical submitted by the claimant at a disability meeting on the grounds that the claimant has the ability to earn, thus the application was rejected.”
The message further stated that Bharat may reapply for the public assistance grant.
