RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite stern warn­ings from the Chil­dren Au­thor­i­ty against ex­ploit­ing chil­dren for alms, scores of chil­dren were seen beg­ging on the streets sur­round­ing La Div­ina Pas­to­ra Church in Siparia dur­ing La Div­ina Pas­to­ra fes­tiv­i­ties on Good Fri­day.

Every year Hin­dus and Catholics gath­er at the Church en­dur­ing swel­ter­ing heat for hours to of­fer gifts to the stat­ue of Si­pa­ree Ki Mai, in hopes of di­vine favour, while the poor and des­ti­tute wait ex­pec­tant­ly for alms.

But this year for se­cu­ri­ty rea­sons, their ac­cess to the church com­pound, where alms were tra­di­tion­al­ly dis­trib­uted, was barred.

Forced on­to the streets—George, Mary, and La Div­ina Streets—the chil­dren wear­ing tat­tered cloth­ing and their rel­a­tives found them­selves lin­ing the pave­ments in a scene of des­per­a­tion and ex­ploita­tion.

Some of the chil­dren sought refuge be­neath sheets of plas­tic, shield­ing them­selves from both the scorch­ing sun and pry­ing cam­eras.

A se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty from the con­fines of the Siparia Boys RC  com­pound, ex­pressed dis­gust at the ram­pant child abuse un­fold­ing be­fore his eyes.

“This morn­ing, I heard a woman curs­ing a boy who was cry­ing, forc­ing him to con­tin­ue beg­ging against his will,” he re­count­ed. An­oth­er child, who couldn’t be more than nine years old, en­dured a bru­tal beat­ing for the sin of mis­plac­ing mon­ey, the of­fi­cer re­vealed.

“If you were to hear these chil­dren speak, you would mis­take them for adults. Many have no child­hood in­no­cence; some have no re­spect,” the of­fi­cer lament­ed.

Speak­ing to CNC3 News, Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo al­so ex­pressed an­guish at the child ex­ploita­tion as he tra­versed the crowd­ed streets on Thurs­day af­ter­noon. 

“I vis­it­ed the mar­ket around 3 pm and walked around the church. My ob­ser­va­tion was hun­dreds of chil­dren lin­ing the church seek­ing alms. I think the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty should in­ves­ti­gate why the chil­dren are there seek­ing hand­outs. The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment should al­so do a prop­er in­ves­ti­ga­tion to see whether there is any re­al need for help from those el­der­ly peo­ple and chil­dren who are lin­ing the streets,” Mayrhoo said.

He added that the chil­dren were be­ing kept un­der in­hu­mane con­di­tions since the church and school com­pound were re­strict­ed.

“We made two tents avail­able for them to sit but I have deep con­cerns about the high num­ber of chil­dren I am see­ing around that church,” Mayrhoo re­vealed.

He said some des­ti­tute fam­i­lies had set up makeshift camps as ear­ly as Wednes­day, cling­ing to the hope of gar­ner­ing alms from the faith­ful devo­tees.

“Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty and the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment must in­ter­vene ur­gent­ly and do an as­sess­ment,” May­or Mayrhoo said adding that vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren con­tin­ue to be en­snared in this cy­cle of ex­ploita­tion and ne­glect.

Last De­cem­ber, the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty and the Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Di­vi­sion is­sued a state­ment say­ing it is an of­fence for a per­son to go on the streets to beg or to cause, pro­cure or en­cour­age a child to beg on the streets.

“A child found to be beg­ging, re­ceiv­ing alms or loi­ter­ing for the pur­pose of beg­ging or re­ceiv­ing alms is a ma­jor con­cern to the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice,” the state­ment said.

The au­thor­i­ty said any mem­ber of the pub­lic be­liev­ing that a child is at risk and en­dan­gered in this way is strong­ly ad­vised to bring this mat­ter to the at­ten­tion of the au­thor­i­ty or the po­lice.