TT a violent society

“THIS is a violent society,” Roberta Clarke, president of the TT Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV) said. “So let’s not get around that. Children experience violence in particular ways. Before the violence gets outside in the community, it’s experienced in the home.

“So we cannot solve the violence outside if we don’t solve the violence in the home.” Clarke was delivering the feature address on Thursday at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Central PoS on the Chamber of Commerce’s domestic violence workplace policy. The meeting took place at the Hotel Normandie Hotel, St Ann’s.

She said 30 per cent of women between 15 and 64 experience domestic violence within relationships across their lifetime, according to a survey done by the Inter American Development Bank last year. Also, an average of 8,000 applications for protection orders are made each year. This is a decrease, since between 2005 and 2010, the annual average was 12,000 applications, 85 per cent by women and 15 per cent by men.

Clarke also said 24 women were killed last year in incidents of domestic violence, adding that the prevalence of such assaults is quite high not only against women but also against children.

She said 3,400 reports of child abuse were made to the Children’s Authority last year, of which 24 per cent were of sexual assault against girls. Clarke said boys and girls equally, are victims of physical assault.

“TT has the highest rate of approval by adults of the use of corporal punishment. It is as high as 70 per cent of adults in Tobago who think it’s appropriate to beat children, and in Trinidad 60-something. The rest of the Caribbean is much lower.” She said this adds dimensions to TT’s social problem, adding that there are other ways to contain and discipline children.

Clarke then addressed the Chamber’s policy on domestic violence in the workplace, an initiative of the Crime and Justice Committee that was started in late 2018 in recognition of the impact of this issue on the workforce. She said inviting employers to come on board is not only the smart thing to do but rather, the right thing to do.

The objective of the policy is to give guidance to employers. She suggested they look inside it and see what can be applied to the workplace. Clarke said it is also to aid employees who are perpetrators of violence and to hold them accountable for their violent behaviour, but also give them referrals to a place where they can get help.