– Manickchand
Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand says that issues relating to women’s development will be a priority of her ministry for this year.
On Friday during the 2010 budget debate, Manickchand told the National Assembly, “This is going to be the year when women’s development is going to take the front burner of the ministry’s agenda.”
According to the minister, within the next two months, her ministry will host a trade fair where Guyanese women can bring out their materials and showcase them to the nation. Following this fair, officials from the ministry will be speaking to these women to find out what problems they experience in marketing their products, Manickchand said.
Additionally, the ministry will be continuing to push empowerment programmes for women and will continue to devote resources towards training single parents, which she pointed out also included men.
She also indicated that the Sexual Offences Bill, which is currently before a special Parliamentary Select Committee will be passed shortly. The delay on this piece of legislation has been a cause of great concern for several local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which have staged picketing exercises over the matter.
Manickchand emphasised that financial assistance or other forms of help given to the vulnerable groups in society ought not to be considered “handouts”, as some members of the opposition had been saying. She said that it was the government’s duty to assist the poor and those in need and that was what they were doing. She, however, stressed that this is not being done at the expense of empowering citizens to create their own wealth.
Speaking on the issue of domestic violence, the minister said that the ministry is in the process of employing someone who will be tasked specifically with implementing the country’s National Policy on Domestic Violence which was passed in 2007. The employee should assume office by March 1, she stated. She noted that there have been several aspects of this plan which have been successfully implemented, including extending legal aid services to all Guyanese, funding Help and Shelter which houses women who requires shelter, having all social workers gazetted so that they can appear in court, training social workers who can represent persons with knowledge of the Act.
She noted that issues of domestic violence and the molesting of children were still in existence but she said that her ministry will continue to wage a “struggle” against these practices. Referring to the recent incident where it was alleged that three girls were sexually abused, she said that the Human Services Ministry had gotten involved as soon as the issue was highlighted. She identified this as a major improvement from the past, since Social Services officers are now readily available to deal with such matters.
