BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - LEADER of the Opposition the Dr. Rt. Hon. Denzil Douglas believes that many of the youth-related challenges facing the nation stem from a breakdown in parent-child relationships within homes.
Speaking during his weekly radio programme on KYSSFM “Ask the Leader”, Dr. Douglas expressed that resulting from the poor parent-child relations, “drift (is) allowed to step in” between the child and parent, at which point problems begin to develop.
“I believe that a lot of the challenges that we are faced with today are emanating from the home. Where there has been a near complete breakdown in the relationship between child and parent.”
The Federation has - over the last several years - been affected by crime and violence, much of which is being perpetrated by young man in society.
Many prominent people within the Federation – including politicians - have called on parents to play a more active role in the development of their children, including knowing where they children hangout and who their acquaintances and friends are.
“These are some of the severe social challenges that we are facing today. And, we believe that [this is] as a result of the loss of the family support and the support from the community and even the support from the schools.”
He noted that a lot of the training and preparatory work, including mentoring and preparing the child for life and its challenges, is now absent from school and he implored the church to play a critical role in the development of communities.
“Because the spiritual develop of the child is critically important if he is going to be able to interact with the rest of his peers and the rest of society.”
Comments recently made by Attorney General the Hon. Vincent Byron at a regional meeting held in St. Kitts, have highlighted the level of youth gang-involvement of within the Federation as compared with other regional territories.
He indicated that the Nation’s youth are four to five times more likely to be involved in a gang than their peers within the Eastern Caribbean.
Reading from a Regional Security System survey, which revealed that the countries of the Eastern Caribbean are prone to street gangs, AG Byron said, “There (are) some 139 street gangs in the sub-region, with some 1578 street gang members’. These were reported by the police in the countries under survey.”
Further, Byron highlighted that the survey revealed that gang members ranged in age from 12 to 24 years, while in some cases children as young as nine years have been recruited.
He noted that a number of measures would be implemented as his government has taken steps to deal with that problem, beginning with increased allocations for National Security in the 2017 Budget.
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