On August 8th, Cindy Ramchandar, 24, was murdered at East Canje. In the midst of transporting a child to a relative, she was knocked off her motorised scooter by her stalker’s vehicle and then stabbed multiple times. She stood no chance. The man she recently separated from has been charged with her murder.
Ms Ramchandar is the latest victim in a long series of girls and women who have been mercilessly killed after relationships soured. While little has been invested in reaching out to men and boys at risk of these murderous proclivities, large amounts of resources have been deployed to protect women who are at risk. These measures include the training and retraining of the police force to recognise danger signals and to treat seriously with complaints of domestic violence and the development of safe houses.
In the case of Ms Ramchandar there was a comprehensive failure of these protective measures and there should be deep introspection by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, the Guyana Police Force and the various donors and civil society organisations on how to salvage this rolling tragedy.
Given the characteristics of Ms Ramchandar’s case she should have been placed immediately under protection. Two months prior to her murder, she had been attacked with a knife, allegedly by the man now before court, and had to bar knife slashes with her hands. A report of this attack had been made by her and her father at the Number 51 Village Police Station. A statement was taken from her and Stabroek News was told that the information was forwarded to the New Amsterdam Police Station. Nothing happened despite the fact that two stations had been aware of the case. The alleged assailant left for sea and there was no pursuit of the matter on his return.
If the protection matrix presided over by the police force and the ministry was functioning at all, the minute that the report was made at the No.51 Village Police Station about the assault on Ms Ramchandar a number of things should have occurred. Steps should have been taken for the expeditious issuing of a protection order against the accused while an investigation of the complaint was done. The matter should have also been immediately referred to a ministry/police desk dealing with cases of persons in grave danger from gender/domestic violence. Thereafter Ms Ramchandar should have been offered protection at a safe home. If she and her family were not interested in this they needed to be counselled about the risks and advised on how to ensure that she remained safe. Diligent efforts were also required to immediately apprehend the assailant over the knife attack and for police prosecutors to pursue the matter through the court to emphasise the likely risk she faced from the assailant.
No type of support was offered by the state and its law enforcement arm and Ms Ramchandar’s relatives tried their best to protect her but ultimately failed. Her aunt, Anita Thirbhowan said that Ms Ramchandar took all the necessary security precautions after ending the relationship with the accused.
“She don’t go nowhere, nowhere, and if she got to go buy anything someone got to go with her… Watch me a live right a back deh and she doesn’t come because she mommy say them frighten if anything happen to she”, the aunt told Stabroek News. Ms. Ramchandar dwelled in fear of being attacked and the worst did indeed happen.
The ministry, the police force and donors have done much talking about protecting girls and women. However there has clearly been an abject failure in creating a protection process and adhering to it. Too many women have been killed under these circumstances and the government and the police must be held accountable. Let Ms Ramchandar’s killing be a line in the sand; one that should have been drawn for innumerable cases that went before including that of Neesa Gopaul.
