RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

For­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al has called for struc­tur­al sup­port for moth­ers, say­ing the coun­try must move be­yond sym­bol­ic cel­e­bra­tions and im­ple­ment poli­cies which sup­port moth­ers.

De­liv­er­ing the ser­mon at the Trin­i­ty Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Gas­par­il­lo yes­ter­day, which marked Moth­er’s Day, Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al urged the Gov­ern­ment, re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions and com­mu­ni­ties to take ac­tion.

“Sup­port paid ma­ter­ni­ty leave, ma­ter­nal health­care and child­care ini­tia­tives. Strong fam­i­lies lead to strong com­mu­ni­ties,” she said.

“These poli­cies are of­ten brand­ed as ‘women’s is­sues’ but they are, in fact, na­tion­al is­sues, be­cause if we ac­cept that women are na­tion builders, then we ac­cept that the poli­cies that would al­low them to dis­charge that func­tion more ef­fec­tive­ly are na­tion­al is­sues that af­fect the fu­ture of the na­tion.”

She rec­om­mend­ed par­ent­ing work­shops, lit­er­a­cy pro­grammes, and fi­nan­cial train­ing, “es­pe­cial­ly in un­der­served ar­eas,” adding church­es and work­places should “cre­ate flex­i­ble sys­tems that ho­n­our moth­ers’ dual roles at work and home.”

Ref­er­enc­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al said, “In this day and age, the year 2025, af­ter we all lived through a pan­dem­ic where we had no choice but to work re­mote­ly, I find it amaz­ing that peo­ple would make an is­sue of per­sons work­ing re­mote­ly.”

She added, “Whether it has to do with a phys­i­cal build­ing or not, the big­ger is­sue is that re­mote work is some­thing we should be em­brac­ing.”

She de­scribed her moth­er’s ex­pe­ri­ence of work­ing in Port-of-Spain while liv­ing in San Fer­nan­do.

“My moth­er worked 8-4 in Port-of-Spain while we lived in San Fer­nan­do. But re­al­ly, she worked 6 am-6 pm be­cause she lost hours of her day to traf­fic. Thank­ful­ly, my grand­par­ents took up all the slack.”

She said more sup­port sys­tems were need­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly for work­ing moth­ers.

“So ku­dos to the lead­ers who are show­ing that this is pos­si­ble, and hope­ful­ly more per­sons would take heed, and cre­ate an en­abling en­vi­ron­ment for moth­ers to bal­ance their pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. Again … it’s not a women’s is­sue, it’s a na­tion­al is­sue,” she said.

She al­so called for in­creased fa­ther in­volve­ment and fam­i­ly sup­port sys­tems.

“Pro­mote mar­i­tal coun­selling, fa­ther in­volve­ment, and fam­i­ly de­vo­tions. A healthy fam­i­ly is the seedbed of na­tion­al strength,” she said.

Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, her­self a young moth­er, urged com­mu­ni­ties to “fea­ture tes­ti­monies of every­day moth­ers in church, com­mu­ni­ty events, or me­dia plat­forms. Let the na­tion see the beau­ty and strength in moth­er­hood.”

She said Moth­er’s Day should be more than flow­ers and words.

“Let it spark a move­ment of na­tion­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the women who qui­et­ly build our fu­ture. May our homes be places of peace, and may our na­tions flour­ish be­cause of the faith­ful hands that build them,” she added.

UNC sources have in­di­cat­ed that there are calls for Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al to serve as Sen­ate Pres­i­dent, but so far there has been no con­fir­ma­tion from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on this.