Letters to the Editor

Newsday

3 Hrs Ago

Rhondall Feeles –

THE EDITOR: One of the interesting books that you study as a student of research is How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. The title of course is meant to draw the reader into a boring subject by emphasising the importance of critically analysing data.

According to newspaper reports, Rhondall Feeles of the Single Fathers’ Association of TT is relying on a study, from an unnamed laboratory, that purports to show that 143 of 440 men who underwent paternity tests over five years were proven not to be the biological father of children they believed to be theirs. Extrapolating this statistic of one in three men to the whole population of men, not just in TT, but in the Caribbean, is one such example of what Huff was warning about.

A quick Google search reveals this is a global misrepresentation of paternity failures, and the statistic is more realistically between one-four per cent. As in TT, men who seek paternity tests belong to a select population who already believe they are not the fathers of their children. This population would obviously have a higher level of failure than the general population.

What is more, even using Feeles’ statistics, is that in fact the majority of these men (2/3) are indeed fathers of the children they seek to deny. Paternity tests usually arise in the context of court applications for child support. Rather than assuming responsibility for care of children, many such men are seeking ways to avoid parenting responsibility.

We know the avoidance of the paternal care role in all its dimensions – time and finance – is a big problem with deep impacts for children. As Feeles reports, 6,838 child maintenance applications were made to the Family Court from 2016 to 2021. The most important takeaway from this data is the extent to which thousands of fathers are contesting meeting the needs of their children, such that mothers must appeal to the court for them to meet their basic responsibilities.

Further, the number of women who seek court orders for child support is well below the number of women to whom no financial contributions are made by fathers for the care of children.

The court is often the place of last resort for women who are reluctant for any number of reasons. This includes those who experience domestic violence and are terrified to seek court intervention; women who do not have the means to access the courts; those who fear that the demands of court appearances may cause them to lose their jobs given that they are the main source of support for their children; and women who do not pursue unpaid child maintenance to protect fathers from having to face courts and possible imprisonment consequences.

CAFRA TT considers that these are some of the urgent issues that must be addressed if we want to make progress as a caring society where there is gender equality and respectful family relations. Women and men have equal sexual and reproductive responsibilities. It is not far-fetched that there may be couples where neither party may know the paternity and only a test will clarify that for these circumstances. There is no need to stigmatise and criminalise uncertainty. Tests should be readily available if there is reasonable cause for uncertainty. That already exists in law. Why should a DNA test for all existing and future maintenance matters be imposed by the state?

We are fortunate to live in a society with a culture of extended families, where aunties, uncles, stepmoms and dads, grannies and grandpas, friends and neighbours all contribute to the care of children. Let us strengthen these bonds, understanding that not only blood relationships determine who care for children. The conclusion of bloodline as the determining factor in childcare disparages a culture of family life, in which a village minds a child.

We must reject harmful and misogynistic stereotyping of women as dishonest and unreliable. And we must affirm the many men, who know they are not the blood fathers of their child, or suspect they are not the blood fathers of their children but continue to love and care for their family without tangible compensation, except the deep love and respect of their children and family. These men, part of the “village,” provide children with the stability, care and resources which ensure that our future generation will be able to manage the tough work of directing our nation’s future.

Let us avoid shaming and punishment and rather seeks to support families as they navigate the complexity of relationships in which the search for intimacy, stability, and companionship is not a linear process, but a difficult and convoluted journey.

CARIBBEAN ASSOCIATION FOR FEMINIST RESEARCH AND ACTION, TT