RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In a heart­felt Fa­ther’s Day mes­sage yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al ap­pealed to cit­i­zens to up­lift, sup­port, and en­cour­age fa­thers, and to show them for­give­ness when they fal­ter.

Lutch­me­di­al, who spoke at a Fa­ther’s Day ser­vice at the Susamachar Pres­by­ter­ian Church in San Fer­nan­do, em­pha­sised the cru­cial role fa­thers play in the fam­i­ly dy­nam­ic.

She said the break­down of re­la­tion­ships should not be used as a jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for fa­thers to play a less ac­tive role in their chil­dren’s lives.

“We do not di­vorce our chil­dren, even when we di­vorce from a fa­ther or a moth­er, there­fore, we should not use a break­down of re­la­tion­ships as a rea­son for fa­thers play­ing a less ac­tive role in the life of a child,” she said.

Lutch­me­di­al said even when re­la­tion­ships be­tween par­ents fail, their con­nec­tion to their chil­dren should re­main strong. Ac­knowl­edg­ing the ab­sence of fa­thers in many in­di­vid­u­als’ lives, she em­pha­sised the yearn­ing for a bond with a fa­ther.

“Many per­sons lose or don’t have that con­nec­tion to a fa­ther, whether he is de­ceased or be­cause of some mis­un­der­stand­ing. Many of the things I’ve spo­ken about are things we yearn for – that bond with our fa­ther,” she said.

“The ab­sence of such a bond of­ten leaves in­di­vid­u­als with a pro­found sense of empti­ness and weak­ness.”

Lutch­me­di­al said a change in mind­set could solve many of so­ci­ety’s prob­lems.

She called on fa­thers to as­sume their roles as lead­ers in so­ci­ety and in the church. High­light­ing the im­pact fa­thers can have on shap­ing the next gen­er­a­tion, she en­cour­aged them to teach young men to view women as equals, treat them with re­spect, and pro­vide them with ed­u­ca­tion­al and ca­reer op­por­tu­ni­ties.

She al­so em­pha­sised the need for for­give­ness, not­ing that fa­thers should be sup­port­ed and giv­en a chance to im­prove, rather than be­ing judged sole­ly on their mis­takes. At an­oth­er Fa­ther’s Day ser­vice, this one at the St Joseph Pres­by­ter­ian Church, for­mer in­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Rev Daniel Teelucks­ingh said it was im­por­tant to de­vel­op a mod­el of re­spon­si­ble fa­ther­hood. He high­light­ed the con­se­quences of ir­re­spon­si­ble fa­ther­hood, in­clud­ing the neg­a­tive ef­fects on chil­dren, fam­i­lies, and mar­riages.

Many chil­dren had been trau­ma­tised dur­ing their for­ma­tive years due to ir­re­spon­si­ble fa­ther­hood but man­aged to find suc­cess in adult­hood, Teelucks­ingh said, as he un­der­scored the need to har­ness the “fa­ther force” in every home as that would lead to bet­ter days for the na­tion as a whole.

The for­mer Sen­a­tor al­so called on politi­cians to ex­em­pli­fy re­spon­si­ble fa­ther­hood in their role as pub­lic ser­vants and to care for their con­stituents as they would their own fam­i­lies.

Teelucks­ingh al­so paid trib­ute to the many ho­n­ourable, re­spon­si­ble, and ex­em­plary fa­thers in T&T who have demon­strat­ed ex­cep­tion­al care for their fam­i­lies.