On Thurs­day evening, scores of peo­ple at­tend­ed a vig­il in Em­ba­cadere, San Fer­nan­do, in re­mem­brance of the life of Adeina Al­leyne, who on Mon­day night be­came the coun­try’s most re­cent ca­su­al­ty of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

As rel­a­tives, friends, neigh­bours and con­cerned cit­i­zens lit can­dles, what tru­ly il­lu­mi­nat­ed the event was the recog­ni­tion that cit­i­zens are tired of the vi­o­lence and bru­tal­i­ty their wom­en­folk are con­tin­u­ing to en­dure.

The vig­il, one in a se­ries that has been sweep­ing the na­tion since the mur­der of court clerk An­drea Bharatt, was a clear sign that the is­sues of gen­der-based and do­mes­tic vi­o­lence are not be­ing placed on the back­burn­er - where they sat so com­fort­ably for decades - by the cit­i­zens of this coun­try any­more.

In­stead, cit­i­zens, in­clud­ing rel­a­tives of the per­pe­tra­tors, are say­ing more must be done to pro­tect women and to cast out the propen­si­ty of some men to com­mit such heinous acts.

Much like in the case of Bharatt, the grue­some mur­der of Al­leyne presents a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty for the na­tion’s politi­cians - on both sides - to put their thoughts, prayers and promis­es in­to ac­tion and pass the much-need­ed leg­is­la­tion to treat with do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

While the work be­ing done by the Min­istry of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs in striv­ing to change the mind-sets of men re­gard­ing vi­o­lence is com­mend­able and the set­ting up of a Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence Unit in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice is laud­able, there must al­so be the leg­is­la­tion to work in tan­dem with all these ef­forts.

This me­dia house be­lieves men who com­mit acts of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence against women should be charged with that crime specif­i­cal­ly and not griev­ous­ly bod­i­ly harm or as­sault.

The present Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence (Amend­ment) Bill 2020 seeks to amend the ex­ist­ing Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act to pro­vide for emer­gency pro­tec­tion or­ders for re­lat­ed mat­ters but still does not speak to mak­ing the of­fence an ac­tu­al crime.

If this is done, it may give the po­lice the added im­pe­tus to take vi­o­lent men off the streets and out of the homes, per­haps sav­ing the lives of women in the process.

But leg­is­la­tion is not the on­ly re­quire­ment. Sup­port for do­mes­tic abuse sur­vivors is al­so sore­ly lack­ing.

On­ly on Fri­day, abuse sur­vivor Cas­san­dra Bap­tiste de­tailed her strug­gles af­ter flee­ing an abu­sive mar­riage.

Al­though hap­py to be alive and away from the mis­treat­ment, how­ev­er, she is now home­less and sep­a­rat­ed from her chil­dren as she tries to find her foot­ing.

Ms Bap­tiste rep­re­sents count­less women who are told to leave their abu­sive re­la­tion­ships but are of­ten left out in the cold, with nowhere to go and lit­tle sup­port, even from fam­i­ly.

It is ev­i­dent more mech­a­nisms ought to be put in place to help abuse sur­vivors seek­ing to es­cape vi­o­lent re­la­tion­ships and to as­sist them as they turn a new chap­ter in their lives.

It is a hope­ful sign that the pop­u­la­tion is now treat­ing vi­o­lence against women with the ab­hor­rence it de­serves, but the leg­is­la­tors must show they are se­ri­ous about end­ing the coun­try’s oth­er pan­dem­ic.