When a life like Sangeeta Persaud’s is lost so tragically to the country, the humdrum dilemmas of every-day life and the posturing of politicians seem so irrelevant and meaningless. What could have been a life lived fully ended in the West Demerara hospital after an alleged exorcism.
On account of what has been reported since her death, Sangeeta’s life is a metaphor for the lack of caring that has become so prevalent in this society. When families fail their children, the neighbours, the community and the village also fail them. The social safety network is often gored precisely in the places that they are most needed. And all of the chatter about child protection agencies and like bodies often fail to live up to the hype or expectations.
It was in her grandmother’s home that Sangeeta spent her last days and Mrs Chaitranie Ramotar can be proud of the efforts she made considering that this 14-year-old girl in the words of one mourner at her funeral stayed at “20 people” because her mother didn’t want her.
There are many facets to this tragedy that can be explored and hopefully reflect harsh lessons that can spark change. The first is probably the most intractable. People’s faith and faiths make them do things that can turn out horribly wrong. In this instance Sangeeta was unwell after drinking tea at her grandmother’s case. The underlying cause of her original illness is unclear but before she could be evaluated in the way that children her age usually are, she was left in the care of a community church for what apparently was an exorcism – the old-fashioned driving out of the demon. After hours of ministrations, Sangeeta was not better and her church relented and she was taken to the West Demerara hospital where she should have been in the first place. She eventually succumbed there; fourteen and dead after falling ill at her grandmother’s home. In a secular society where the freedom of religion is a much hallowed right enshrined in the constitution, there can be no judgement passed on her family’s wish to involve their pastor. What however must be enquired into is what exactly happened in the home and the church. The pastor spent three hours engaged in the mechanics of exorcism and a further seven hours in his church during which Sangeeta was subjected to various procedures. The critical question is whether what Sangeeta was subjected to at the home and church exacerbated her condition and at worse caused her death.
The post-mortem examination puzzlingly was not revealing about the exact cause of death and there was no information about evidence of contusions, bruising or other injuries to her body as a result of the interventions by the church. If they had been present, those would give rise to grounds for an investigation of the pastor and those who participated. There is also the question of her private parts being touched. Surely it is not acceptable that a 14-year-old could be so violated considering she was in no position to consent to anything.
While the police and their investigative arm have been notoriously incapable of producing satisfactory results in cases like this we do believe, however upsetting it might be to her family, that the police must persevere. There should have been samples taken from her stomach for toxicological survey and tissue samples for further examination. We would go as far as to say that if there was need for her remains to be exhumed that the police should seek the necessary approvals to do so considering the tragic circumstances of her demise. Her medical history – if there were records of these at clinics etc and at the West Demerara Hospital – should be made available to investigators once her guardians agree. The approach by the authorities thus far to determine the cause of death has been frankly casual and disappointing.
Perhaps, most distressing to readers was the tale of neglect of Sangeeta. No matter the circumstances, it is difficult to envisage that she would not have been living with either parent or at least in close, regular contact. From the anguished outpourings from mourners at the funeral it was clear that Sangeeta had been shunted from family member to family members and was clearly not availed the kind of stability in family life that would have enabled her healthy growth.
What was it in the circumstances of the lives of her mother and father that could have rendered them unwilling and/or incapable of discharging their parental obligations to this girl? It can be many things and reflective of a long-established trend where grandparents with limited means have been saddled with the joys and burdens of raising grands as the parents pursue their dreams or simply check out of productive society. At worst, it is this dreadfully dehumanizing affliction of parents with little caring for the children they bring into this world.
And what about the responsibility of the social safety network? We now have a child protection agency and a rights of the child commission which is a constitutional body. What sense or significance do these bodies hold if children like Sangeeta live such deprived, tortured and dangerous lives? The Minister of Human Services, Ms Priya Manickchand and her social support services could not seriously believe that the establishment of a child protection agency operating on the basis that certain cases may be brought to their attention will improve the lot of children. She cannot certainly believe that the mere existence of the agency will reduce the prevalence of such cases.
We have argued repeatedly and urged her ministry to set about finding families in distress with children like Sangeeta who are at risk of severely short lifespans. This will not be accomplished by sitting in Georgetown and hoping for the cases to walk in. It will entail hard work and the deployment of officers of the ministry to go into the nooks and crannies of the country. It will require each minister of government and senior official to keep an eye out for such children on their multifarious and mostly unedifying forays into communities. It will entail those unwieldy cabinet outreaches weaving in child protection in their missions. It will entail liaison between the ministry and regional democratic councils, local government councils and community development councils.
It is the media which mostly finds cases like Sangeeta’s and sometimes when it is too late. The child protection agency and the rights of the child commission will amount to little and will achieve even less if they don’t zealously take on the task of finding the Sangeetas of this country in good time.
