BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) is crying foul over the treatment of women in St. Kitts and Nevis, against the backdrop of the month-long celebration of International Women’s Day.
During an interview with SKNVibes, Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number Two, Hon. Marcella Liburd contended that the dismissal of a large number of women from the civil service and other government departments and agencies as an indication that the quality of life for women in the Federation had slowly diminished.
“What we have seen over the last two years with this government is really deterioration with the quality of life for women. This is not about politics, it is about evidence that is stark.”
On Wednesday (Mar. 8), St. Kitts and Nevis joined the rest of the world in recognising that day as International Women’s Day, and the Labour Party Chairperson criticised the government for its alleged continued treatment of women.
Liburd, the only female member on the Opposition Benches in Parliament, contended that the government has struck down a number of initiatives geared towards the development of women in St. Kitts and Nevis.
She pointed to the Women In Small Enterprise programme (WISE), which the Labour Party Administration had implemented to bolster the development of women in St. Kitts; a project she noted that the Opposition hase no idea where it has gone.
“So that means women who would have sold on trays and have small or micro businesses were able to access that programme. At one stage we had almost 200 women that had access that programme to help them with businesses.
“We started a pioneering women’s programme where we put pioneering women out there to educate the public, and that too has come to a halt," she explained.
The government, however, is singing a different tune on the matter as Senator with Responsibility for the Gender Affairs, Hon. Wendy Phipps, when asked to address those allegations, indicated that the government has in fact done and is undertaking more for women.
She pointed to several initiatives that the Team Unity Administration had taken before the Cabinet, including the Domestic Violence and Reporting Protocol.
“...which for the benefit of public information had been languishing by the previous administration for a number of years! That document, which the Cabinet has already seen fit to approve, is now going to be the subject of a national consultation to get another round feedback; and once that feedback in garnered, then the consultant would bring back a great reincarnation of that document back to the Cabinet.”
Phipps also pointed to Project VIOLA which started under the previous administration, as well as a number of other initiatives.
Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris, during his last monthly press conference, questioned the way how the term “victimisation” is being used by the Opposition SKNLP.
“Let us face it, who are the people who have been victimised? Is it the fact that we have said no to the firm in which Marcella Liburd is a partner, [which] continues to have an almost exclusive position to legal work in relation to the work of the Development Bank?”
