14-year-old goes to work so pregnant mother can look after home

By Andrew Carmichael

The complications that come with pregnancy have forced Parbatie Mahadeo to ask her 14-year-old daughter to become the family’s sole breadwinner.

The heavily pregnant Mahadeo of 10th Street, Rose Hall Town, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), is currently a mother to five children aged 14, 7, 5, 2 and 11 months old. She lives with her children in a zinc house with no rooms.
In the house, there is a single bed – which Mahadeo sleeps on with her husband and baby – a hammock and a bench. The other four children are forced to sleep on the floor with just a sheet to lie on. The house also has a small piece of sheet vinyl covering the mud in certain parts, while the rest is left bare.

The family has been finding it hard to make ends meet because of the fact that Mahadeo’s husband is employed as a sugar worker but because it is currently out of crop, he is unemployed.
This has placed an added strain on the family and forced Mahadeo to send her teenage daughter out to work. The teenager now works as a domestic worker, allowing her mother to stay at home in their zinc house with her four siblings.
The teenager was taken out of school after her mother stopped receiving child support payments from her father. She was a Grade Nine student at that time.
“It is tough but I am making out because my daughter is working…domestic work she is doing. She said she would go and work because I usually clean shrimp at the market but now, we not getting work because of the coronavirus,” the 30-year-old mother stated,

This publication was told that the teenager earns $7500 weekly, which goes directly into putting food on the table for the family. By going out to work at such a young age, Mahadeo’s daughter is now forced to take up the responsibility of taking care of her family without even enjoying the things that come with teenage life.
In addition to being deprived of the carefreeness of being a teenager, Mahadeo’s daughter is at the risk of being exploited because of her age.
Mahadeo’s first three children are from her first marriage and the other two along with the one on the way are her current husband’s children.
“Me and the father for dem three leff (separated). During 2017 we leff because he drink and he put me out,” she said.

Because of the abuse at the hands of her first husband, the woman was rescued by her mother and then she was allowed to erect a small structure in her mother’s yard to dwell. However, she related that her sisters forced her to leave after she met her second husband.
“My sisters come and put me out because this boy father comes and stay with me because he says I don’t have nobody to assist me,” she explained.
The young mother and her four children then sought refuge at her husband’s father and were given a place to stay. However, the owners of that property subsequently removed them to the current location after constructing the zinc house.
With all that has happened, four children are currently in need of betterment. The baby lacks the basic necessities for healthy development and the family is in dire need of better living conditions.
Mahadeo is hopeful that they will get out of the current situation and be able to make better provisions for their children.