Domestic violence

Jan 07, 2025 Editorial, News

---

Editorial… 

Kaieteur News- Last week during her ministry’s end-of-year news conference Human Services Minister, Dr. Vindyha Persaud reported that there has been a 33 per cent decrease in the number of homicides due to domestic violence. In a country where almost daily someone man or woman is being abused, the news of a decrease in deaths due to domestic violence is worthy to take note of.

Dr. Persaud also spoke about her government’s efforts to address domestic violence, pointing out that $150 million has been invested into addressing sexual offences and gender-based violence at the start of 2024. She outlined that the ministry supported approximately 1,500 individuals through its Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Unit.  As well, initiatives such as the Hope and Justice Centre, provided counselling, legal aid and other essential services to victims of abuse. Dr. Persaud disclosed too that the hotline received over 14,000 calls which included 293 that were related to domestic violence. “This service allowed the ministry to intervene in cases of violence when necessary and to effectively monitor incidents,” Dr. Persaud said.

Over the years, women have been at the receiving end of the surge in domestic violence here, mainly at the hands of their male partners. Though both sexes can experience intimate partner violence, women and adolescent girls are at greater risk for many reasons, including gender norms that justify partner violence against women and girls as a form of punishment or as a normal and acceptable way to resolve conflict. Whatever our contexts, or our male-centric visions, violence against women must always rank as the unthinkable, the unacceptable, and the unpardonable.

Violence against women in Guyana is a problem; some may argue more than it has mushroomed into a national source of shame. This is the 21^st century, when those crude pictures of a Stone Age male armed with a club in one hand dragging a helpless female by the hair should be circumstances of the distant past, with no place for that kind of mentality in Guyana. Yet, there is horror and sorrow that some of that is still harboured here by too many men, some younger, still maturing males.

All too often, the media is lit up with the harrowing episodes of violence against women in this country, and the gruesome outcomes that seem inevitable. Women activists have worked tirelessly in advocating for battered women.  Successive governments have committed resources and energies to assist survivors, to warn the naïve and trusting, not to take their lives in their hands by being casual about abuse and abusers. Religious groups and their leaders have spoken out in condemnation of violence against women, and educate the men in their houses of worship not to resort to such heinous practices that shatter confidence, trust, and oftentimes lives. In addition, well-intended males have joined in the call and struggle for a better environment, especially the domestic, for our women to live in, share with, and enjoy with peace and dignity.

Sadly, the combined efforts of all the best minds, the ongoing efforts, seem to fall on deaf ears, and resistant minds.  Whenever there is an extended lull in reports of violence against women in Guyana, there would be a flare up of incidents that leave many wondering what progress has been made, if any, and what else has to be done to stem the tide of violence that can be red hot with anger, and redder in the blood that flows.

The Guyana Police Force has trained its people to exercise the proper care when victims come forward to report instances of domestic violence.  The Ministry of Human Services and Social Protection has rolled out one programme after another, which women can access and seek assistance.  There are hotlines and help-lines, videos and a range of education efforts and awareness programmes, which are provided to offer ongoing help, either on a preemptive basis, or as situations arise, so that the women in Guyana can be equipped to take the necessary steps to safeguard themselves.

We think that some of this has registered, and more and more women are taking to heart what is offered. One wonders how far behind we would have been in the fight against the scourge of violence against women, if it were not for the constructive developments from a variety of sources, some official, many others private and of a volunteering type. The good news is that the statistics appear to indicate a decline in the reports of violence that come to light.  Still, there must be the discernment that many women, too many of them, continue to suffer in silence and shame, and permit abusers (using a range of different weapons) to inflict great harms on them and their families.

Our young boys and young girls must be educated and informed of what we live with, and that it doesn’t have to be this way for them. Our older, mature females must also come to grips with the likely fatal dangers that await, when they are more concerned about cultural stigma, and pleasing family elders, maintaining family traditions. It is time for the violence against women to cease.  But all must recognise that the journey has now begun, and that the road ahead is long.  The violence against women must stop. There is much work to be done, and it involves everybody.

(Domestic violence)

---

• Domestic violence, Editorial, Guyana, Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Unit, Violence Against Women

---