The Guyana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (GMICS) 2019-2020 assessment of males and females across Guyana has found that many persons still believe that there are justifiable reasons for males hitting or beating their partners, with lower percentages vindicating actions such as burning food but increasing numbers if that partner believed that they were being cheated on.
The survey has only recently been made available.
In a country where domestic violence is widespread among its females, the report revealed that males between the ages of 15 to 17 years old represented the highest percentage who said they believed that hitting their partner could be justified.
The GMICS 2019-2020 stated that it assessed the attitudes of males and females ages 15 to 49 years towards wife/partner beating by asking the respondents whether they thought that husbands/partners are justified in hitting or beating their wives/ partners in a variety of situations.
Of the 8,285 households selected for the sample, 7,520 were found occupied. Of these, 7,072 (91 per cent) were successfully interviewed for a household response rate of 94 percent.
In the interviewed households, 6,576 females (ages 15 to 49 years) were identified. Of these, 5,887 were successfully interviewed, yielding a response rate of 89.5 per cent within the interviewed households.
The survey also sampled males (ages 15 to 49 years) but required only a sub-sample. All males (ages 15 to 49 years) were identified in every 5,894 households; 2,916 males (ages 15 to 49 years) were listed in the household questionnaires. Questionnaires were completed for 2,214 eligible males, which corresponds to a response rate of 71.5 per cent within eligible interviewed households.
Cellphone
Ranging from if the female goes out without informing that partner; if she neglects the children; if she refuses sex with him, or if she burns food, to if she has another partner; if she stays out late; if she refuses to cook and clean; if he does not have access to her cellphone, or if she overspends; the answers saw younger males, justifying beatings more. The purpose of the questions, the report points out, is to capture the social justification of violence as a disciplinary action when a female does not comply with certain expected gender roles.
Of 5,887 females surveyed, the report reveals that 17.1% or 1,007 females said that hitting for any of the ten reasons listed was justifiable.
And for men, of the 2,214 surveyed, 16.1% answered to hitting being justifiable for any one of the reasons listed. Of note was that 25.3% of those in support were between the ages of 15 to 17 years old.
The sixth round of GMICS was conducted from 2019 to 2020 by the Guyana Bureau of Statistics (BoS) as part of an ongoing collaboration between the Government of Guyana and UNICEF Guyana, and is part of the Global MICS Programme.
UNICEF believes that the collaboration signals “shared interests in evidence-informed actions and aligns with Guyana’s international commitments and obligations related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the global 2030 agenda.”
“MICS-6 provides up-to-date, statistically sound, and internationally comparable disaggregated data, on priorities related to children’s rights to survival, development, learning, safety and justice, and equity and participation. Its culmination is a fundamental step towards eradicating inequities and enhancing intergenerational equity. It is also essential in strengthening children and adolescents’ ability to reach their full potential as productive, engaged, and capable citizens report provides data on children ages 0-5 and 5-17, women 15-49, men 15-49 and households across the country. It helps the government and all stakeholders to understand disparities and the wider development challenges in the country,” UNICEF’s Area Representative to Guyana & Suriname and Special Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Nicolas Charles Pron stated.
Interventions
“For us at UNICEF, this evidence allows us to effectively focus resources on interventions that will respond to the needs and make a difference in the lives of Guyanese children and families,” he added.
He noted that as the government scales-up, decentralises, and intensifies its strategic joint action to deliver on programme and project commitments and related targets for women and children, the utility of the key findings report could never be overstated.
It is in this regard that UNICEF encourages “all government staff, partners, communities, academia and the private sector to take an in-depth analysis of the MICS data and use it for planning, formulation of evidence-based policies, advocacy, including design of programme interventions aimed at addressing challenges facing Guyana, to accelerate development efforts and achieve SDG targets.”
In 2021, the Guyana Police Force had stated that it received a total of 1,692 domestic violence reports, although many of the domestic cases here go unreported and those which reach the attention of the police are usually because they would have escalated to partners suffering grievous bodily harm.
Out of the reports, police had said that 814 cases, or less than half, were made with a corresponding amount of persons being charged.
In 2021, government announced plans to revamp the domestic violence laws and related legislation and to rollout 24-hour units to help abuse victims.
That same year, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund and under the Spotlight Initiative, launched the COPSQUAD 2000 initiative.
The COPSQUAD initiative training course includes aspects on interrogation, assessment of safety, counselling, response to people who visit a police station to make a complaint, and how case reports should be written. Ranks are also being trained on how to deal with the alleged perpetrators and it was noted that counselling done by the ministry has helped a number of persons who physically assaulted their partners. Upon the successful completion of the training, ranks are outfitted with a badge which will help victims easily identity the ranks they are reporting to.
500 officers
A release from the Ministry of Human Services in May this year, said that in February 2023, 500 officers had graduated, bringing the number of officers trained to effectively handle cases of Gender-Based Violence to approximately 1,500.
A Spotlight report had said that critical service delivery systems such as counselling and providing shelter to victims need to be strengthened to aid in achieving the objectives its initiative intended which is to eliminate violence against women and girls.
The Global MICS Programme was developed by UNICEF in the 1990s as an international multi-purpose household survey programme to support countries in collecting internationally comparable, statistically rigorous data on a wide range of indicators on the situation of children and women. MICS surveys measure key indicators that have allowed countries to generate data to inform policies, programmes, and national development plans, and to monitor progress towards internationally agreed upon commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), among other international commitments.
The report said that MICS reports have served as a source of data for Guyana’s national development strategies such as the Green State Development Strategy (2019) and will inform the expanded Low Carbon Development Strategy currently being prepared. It also informs the development and adjustments of Sector Plans/Strategies and the Guyana (UN) Country Implementation Plan (CIP). It provides data to measure progress of the Government of Guyana-UNICEF 5-year joint programme.
