SUFFER THE CHILDREN

THERE are hundreds of street children in Trinidad and Tobago, victims of grinding poverty, home violence, and other social and economic crises.

The Government’s social welfare system is skewed and makes no impact toward reducing the number of people living under the poverty line.

Without tangible efforts to end this worsening humanitarian emergency, the authorities are moving to prosecute children who beg for alms or peddle nuts on the streets to feed themselves.

A senior police officer Claire Guy-Alleyne recently told a parliamentary committee that such children “will be arrested and charged.”

No more “soft approach,” Guy-Alleyne deadpanned, because “this thing is becoming a nuisance.”

In a further empathic tone, she declared: “We are going to operate with a zero-tolerance approach.”

Those to be indicted include aimless street children of Venezuelan migrants, refugees who fled Nicholas Maduro’s tyranny and were not suitably processed and assimilated into Trinidad and Tobago.

Without proper homes, educational opportunities, access to education or familiarity with the local language, many are on street corners, pain etched on their innocuous faces.

The police service is also targeting vendors who hustle nuts, water and other consumables, or offer to wipe your vehicle’s windscreen for a small change.

The Immigration Department and the Children’s Authority are enlisted in the assault on the underprivileged who see the streets as their sole option for bettering their lives.

No presenter at the JSC forum – or in any subsequent contribution – suggested that the problem should be effectively tackled at its source through an urgent multi-pronged method.

That’s a double whammy for the growing number of young struggling youths sidelined by society and with growling bellies.

You see, various agencies have reported on the surge of child poverty and destitution amid the mounting cost of living.

“Deprivation of food, clothing, proper shelter and a lack of finances to meet one’s basic needs, as well as healthcare,” UNICEF has characterised the problem.

Another study reported on “a complex pattern… of violence, hostility, and distorted social interactions amidst negative attitudes and disdainful behaviours.”

In other words, while the driftless youths look for pennies and purpose, the authorities identify them only as a social problem, or, in the words of Guy-Alleyne, “a nuisance.”

In the meantime, more and more people are struggling, pounded by ever-climbing costs of food, housing, transportation and healthcare.

Many workers have not seen a wage increase in years, and public officers got a four per cent raise to cover the worst financial decade of their lives.

The Government’s social welfare aid is woefully insufficient, in addition to being discriminatory in its distribution.

The grating living conditions are fermenting more mental health issues along with creating unprecedented hardship on a society already tormented by runaway crime.

Children begging publicly is a complicated issue tied into several factors, including a loss of confidence in the system and a blow to self-confidence and dignity.

The Government talks the talk, frequently spouting lyrics of poverty eradication and protection of vulnerable children.

But the evidence on the ground tells a radically different story.

The hardline stance of the police service – advocated by Guy-Alleyne – alerts us that the authorities are not conscious of the complex causes of the deteriorating state of affairs.

Or they simply don’t care.