THE EDITOR: It is a known fact that child abuse is not limited to homes but are also a problem at child day-care centres and is more rampant than the cases reported in the media in recent times in which children have succumbed to brutal beatings.
Local government through the 14 municipal regions and the THA in Tobago have the opportunity to greatly assist in combating child abuse throughout the country by way of periodic and impromptu visits to such homes and day-care centres.
The central question is how much is being done at the community level through these institutions in bringing a measure of relief to this worsening problem, which has saturated the national discourse for some time now. The rational is that if the problem is worsening, clearly any initiatives in place are not working and as such there needs a more heightened response.
It is not good enough to depend solely on the Children Authority or related governmental agencies to help solve this problem. What is needed is a more active and aggressive community approach towards the identification and mitigation of child abuse.
The 14 municipal regions in Trinidad and the THA in Tobago are sub-divided into small electoral districts, each represented by a councillor. Each councillor along with a building inspector, a public health inspector and a municipal police officer can pay separate periodic and impromptu visits to day-care centres that fall within their jurisdiction to familiarise themselves with the operators, staff and occupants and to offer assistance and support if needed.
Furthermore, it should be made mandatory for such establishments to be registered and licensed with the local authority, and when applications are to be made for an annual renewal of licences, they should be accompanied by a recommendation from the councillor, along with favourable reports from the building inspection, public health and municipal police departments in each region.
Should these reports contradict each other then most likely something is amiss and that application should be deferred for further investigation and consideration. Those day-care centres currently operating that are not registered and licensed should be inspected and made to comply with the necessary approved standards or face immediate closure.
In my view, there is sufficient legislation in place to combat this violence perpetrated against our children, which has plagued our society for many years. What is also clearly needed to solve the child abuse problem in the home is to address the lack of the human resource element to tackle it.
For one, there is a dire need for an infusion of many more trained social workers into the overburdened system. For years this has gone without adequate intervention. What is required as a matter of urgency and governmental priority is the adoption of “the prevention is better than cure approach.” With more trained social workers in the field, they would be able to detect any abuse and take the necess
