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CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor notes with concern, the high number of fatal incidents among children, that are caused by family members.

Dr. Nakhid-Chatoor was giving her perspective on the recently discovered skeletal remains of 18 year old Hannah Mathura who was reportedly shot and killed 7 years ago.

Nicole M Romany reports.
Transcript
00:00 Dr. Margaret Nakichatur is a psychologist and educator with a focus on the psycho-educational
00:07 evaluation of children and adolescents. She says the case of Hannah Mathura, a young girl
00:14 killed and buried in the backyard of her home and never reported missing, highlights the
00:21 need to prioritize child protection. Dr. Nakichatur says the issue cannot be swept under the carpet.
00:28 I think child abuse has tripled since that time. And COVID-19 has allowed us a little
00:35 gateway so that we could sort of monitor what is happening in home or the children who are
00:40 missing from schools or the children who did not log on to services. But I do not know
00:45 to what extent we have put those factors in place to see where children are. So now we
00:52 have what has happened in Valzane last week. And I think if we do not really look at it
00:57 along certain lines, this entire incident will evade us as usual and until the next
01:04 thing happens. Dr. Nakichatur tells TV6 the home may not always be a safe place. In fact,
01:11 she notes that many of these incidents occur with relatives. Children with disabilities
01:18 are six times more likely to be abused by parents. And when you look at the statistics,
01:24 you ask are the persons in their home at greatest risk of giving them or inflicting violence?
01:31 Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Eighty-eight percent. And that's a very high statistic. Eighty-eight
01:38 percent of children who die, it's done by parents and 12 percent by siblings. Dr. Nakichatur
01:46 laments that children are falling through the cracks. She further highlights the lack
01:51 of support from communities in domestic and family violence situations. People knew, neighbours
01:57 knew. We heard reports in Valzane that the neighbours reported, but they didn't report
02:01 enough. They didn't, they were not vocal enough. They didn't bring it to the attention of the
02:07 media enough. We need to be more vocal. We need to stop hiding behind closed doors. We
02:13 need to be a people, an aggressive people who would demand change in the society. Nicola
02:20 M. Romany, TV6 News.
02:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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