In T&T poor girls and women insert bicycle spokes into the uterus, douche with bleach or hot disinfectant, eat green pineapple or pawpaw, drink hot stout with olive oil or quinine tablets, have a "massage" by a village midwife or throw themselves down a flight of stairs to abort an unwanted child.
That was revealed by international gender development consultant Dr Rawwida Baksh at a breakfast meeting held by Aspire, the reproductive rights advocacy group, at Capital Plaza, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.Now more than ever civil society needed to continue its independent advocacy in calling for the adoption of a draft national gender policy which has been before Cabinet since August 2012, she said.
Baksh added: "It would be laughable if it wasn't so distressing that T&T lags behind other Caribbean countries and non-independent territories which have national gender policies," Baksh said.Guyana, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and the Turks and Caicos Islands have such policies.
Baksh also urged the society to continue to advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion and homosexuality and praised the work of Aspire and the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) on their work on recognising fundamental human rights.In quoting statistics from Aspire, Baksh said every year 3,000-4,000 women were treated at the public hospitals for the effects of unsafe abortion and over $1 million was drained from the public purse each month to treat the complications.
Civil society must also continue to build alliances with government, academia, the labour movement, calypsonians, the media and cultural practitioners so that the policy would be finally implemented, she said.Saying a national gender policy was urgently needed Baksh said in a secular, multi-cultural society, ideally Government should make development policy based on the international human rights agreements on which it had signed, concrete evidence on the ground, sound analysis and best practice.
Baksh described a gender policy as a framework put in place by Government to promote fairness and equality between men and women and the development of the fullest potential in a society of all men, boys, women and girls.Dispelling claims a national gender policy will only work to the advantage of women, Baksh said the point was to achieve fairness for everyone, whether the person was a father, homemaker, vendor or construction worker.
"A national gender policy sets out the country's gender equality priorities. If we take a close look at the labour market we will see that men and women are positioned very differently, linked to traditional beliefs about men's and women's appropriate roles and responsibilities," Baksh said.
Despite the fact that women were increasingly educated and employed in the labour force, Baksh added, they were still expected to be the primary caregivers and even though women were entering new sectors, they still comprised the majority of traditionally "female" occupations.She added: "Not only was the labour force segregated by gender but studies show women are paid between 60 and 80 percent of male earnings for the same work across the world, particularly in the private sector.
"And although they are setting up businesses, they tend to be at the level of micro and small enterprises and receive less access to credit and other forms of support."Baksh said boys and men were also victims of gender-based violence as boys were beaten by their mothers and often bullied in school and the community for a variety of reasons, including the perception they were gay.
"Men are increasingly facing domestic abuse by their spouses and partners. Violence destabilises the security of the individual and society as we are seeing every day on the streets and in the news," she added.
