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THE government has made better provision for both the children and adults of TT than its PNM predecessor, argued Dr Natalie Chaitan-Maharaj, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of the People, Social Development and Family Services. She made her contribution to the budget debate in the Senate on October 27. Referring to the previous speaker, she urged opposition senator Janelle John-Bates to ask her colleagues why the former government had not opened the Couva Children's Hospital for ten years and why they had voted against the Children's Life Fund. "Their solution was to give them weed," she hit, apparently citing the decriminalisation of cannabis for personal, recreational use. Chaitan-Maharaj hit the former government for cancelling the baby milk grant, introduced by the former Kamla Persad-Bissessar government in sympathy at the plight of a single mother caught shoplifting baby-milk formula to feed her infant. "This government takes care of the needs of the most vulnerable." She vowed the National Therapeutic and Resource Centre (NTRC) will offer free therapy for all disabled people, saying this would be on a much bigger scale than the previous government. "It was the PNM which refused to open the ECCE centres." She alleged the former government had taken away the school laptop programme introduced by the first Persad-Bissessar government, and had reduced allocations for school transport, scholarships, GATE, among other things. Chaitan-Maharaj alleged under the PNM, the school textbook grant allocation had fallen from a previous $133 million under the UNC down to $33 million. She alleged the number of meals provided daily under the national school feeding programme had fallen from 76,000 in 2010-2015, to 48,000 in 2017-2020, and to 28,000 in the covid period. In comparing the track-records of PNM and UNC, she urged John-Bates to recall the words of calypsonian Edwin "Crazy" Ayoung's 1989 hit, Don't Try That! Chaitan-Maharaj said under the PNM TT's foreign exchange reserves had plummeted from US$11.4 billion in 2015 to US$5.4 billion. She accused PNM speakers of using a strategy described by Austrian psychology pioneer Sigmund Freud called psychological projection, a defence mechanism to protect one's ego from guilt and shame. Chaitan-Maharaj defended the predicated oil and natural gas price – US$73.25 per barrel and gas at US$4.25 per unit respectively – at which the government had set the budget on, as she explained the world was now in a recovery global market. "Their assertion of a hidden TT$20 billion deficit is baseless fear-mongering, contradicted by the transparent figures in our Review of the Economy." Justifying the bank levy and electricity surcharge, she said these measures were aimed at those with high earnings and would act to fund social programmes without burdening the vulnerable. She said the government had replaced Cepep, URP and reforestation programmes, which she alleged the former government "had used to keep our people living hand to mouth." Chaitan-Maharaj said, "We have replaced them, starting with recruitment drives to allow our citizens the chance at acquiring real jobs with real security that they can take to the bank." In an apparent reference to allegations of ghost workers in these programmes, a UNC colleague chimed in, "And real people!" She noted $5 million to start a Women's Health Fund to address period poverty. "No young girl should face the embarrassment of having to ask a friend for a pad, pretending she’s forgotten hers, when in reality she doesn’t have enough of her own." Chaitan-Maharaj explained this is not merely a product distribution exercise. "It will be accompanied by widespread education and sensitization programmes on menstrual health for all groups, including men and boys." She said her ministry had an ambitious pipeline of projects for fiscal 2026, all grounded in the National Child Policy. "These initiatives are designed to create a TT where every child is safe, heard, and empowered." Chaitan-Maharaj's parliamentary profile described her as "a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who brings over 15 years of dedicated experience in women’s healthcare."
