There has been a deaf­en­ing si­lence from the of­fice of the Min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs; Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy, de­spite grow­ing pub­lic con­cerns over the re­cent rise in do­mes­tic vi­o­lence cas­es, cul­mi­nat­ing with the lat­est mur­der-sui­cide in Bar­rack­pore in which school­teacher Amar De­o­bar­ran killed his wife Omatie Ram­di­al-De­o­bar­ran in the pres­ence of their eight-year-old son.

The mur­der-sui­cide has sent shock­waves across the com­mu­ni­ty. Many are find­ing it dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand why a teacher so loved by his pupils chopped to death the woman to whom he was mar­ried, then took his own life.

Al­though in­fi­deli­ty has been high­light­ed, on­ly those close to the cou­ple would have a true idea of why the re­la­tion­ship went sour and why it end­ed with their deaths.

On Sun­day, act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob ex­pressed con­cern and sug­gest­ed that cou­ples fac­ing such sit­u­a­tions seek pro­fes­sion­al help be­fore it’s too late.

How­ev­er, noth­ing has been heard from the Min­istry of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs which is based in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and is head­ed by Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy. Sure­ly, she can tell the na­tion what plans and poli­cies are in place to help the na­tion’s men and women.

With many chil­dren or­phaned by COVID-19 and many more los­ing par­ents due to do­mes­tic abuse, from the min­is­te­r­i­al lev­el there should at least be an ac­knowl­edge­ment and ex­pres­sion of con­cern.

There is a mes­sage on the min­istry’s Face­book page, at­trib­uted to Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy, that states: “Vic­tims of abuse are at risk of be­com­ing en­snared in a cy­cle of vi­o­lence and even of be­com­ing abusers them­selves. We all have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ful­fil chil­dren’s rights to en­sure that the lives of boys and girls are free from abuse, ne­glect and vi­o­lence. Si­lence is ac­cep­tance.”

Is the min­is­ter’s si­lence on this mat­ter an in­di­ca­tion of her ac­cep­tance of the re­cent trag­ic events? If not, she must ex­plain her role in help­ing to ad­dress the scourge of do­mes­tic abuse in T&T.

Any­one who holds a po­si­tion of au­thor­i­ty in this coun­try should un­der­stand that they are not more win­dow dress­ing or a sideshow, but have tak­en an oath to up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and to serve with­out fear or favour the in­ter­est of the cit­i­zens who put them there.

The Gen­der and Child Af­fairs port­fo­lio is not one to be treat­ed light­ly. In this chal­leng­ing sce­nario, in the af­ter­math of re­cent tragedies, it is time to ac­count for the state of in­vest­ment or lack there­of in shel­ters for women and chil­dren who are vic­tims of do­mes­tic abuse sit­u­a­tions.

A few years ago, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley ad­vised women to be care­ful in their choice of part­ners, since the po­lice can­not be in every­one’s homes. How­ev­er, his ad­min­is­tra­tion now needs to enun­ci­ate a clear pol­i­cy on how it will help women who walk away from such sit­u­a­tions and of­fer some hope of help.

It is time for those in au­thor­i­ty to of­fer hope and help to the vul­ner­a­ble who need it most. Some talk a good talk, some say noth­ing. It is time to re­turn to the days of be­ing our broth­ers’ and sis­ters’ keep­ers, which re­quires that those in au­thor­i­ty do what they are paid to do.