Mireille Martin is quite possibly the worst minister we have had in a long time.

She became minister because it was her reward for turning her orange coat. Now if somebody wants to be minister that bad, you’d think, wouldn’t you that when the wish is fi nally granted, that she’d rise to the occasion. Not so, Mireille. She decided the minute she became minister that she was no longer accountable to anyone.

Her take on what her mandate as minister for gender equality, child development and family welfare was supposed to be, was rather bemusing. Whatever she was told her role was, she interpreted as “ wear a sari, sit next to PM and smile. When in Parliament, don’t answer questions, when journalists ask questions, please ignore”.

Some ten children are currently parked at the Brown Sequard psychiatric hospital in Beau- Bassin.They come from broken families and are wards of the state. They had been sent to shelters except that the shelters couldn’t deal with their unruly behaviour. Funny that, isn’t it? Did the Child Development Unit or even the shelters expect traumatized children from broken and abusive families to be well behaved and charming? I mean, shouldn’t the state expect those children to be unruly and have a protocol to deal with them? Surely the point of it all is to try and soothe those children, minimize the damage already done and ensure that they don’t grow up to become future inmates of the Beau- Bassin prison?

But no, there’s no protocol for antisocial behaviour I’m not even sure Martin’s services recognize antisocial behavior as a problem. Case in point, those children were sent to a psychiatric hospital. Some of them have been there for the past two years. Abandoned because the ministry doesn’t know what to do with them.

And our dear Ms Martin, you’re wondering? Well, join the club because we don’t know either. She is incommunicado. At a press conference on Tuesday, when journalists questioned her about this problem, she said she wasn’t there to discuss this particular question and that she would restrict herself to talking about women. In other words, she’ll stick to blah blah.

Three years ago, former Health minister Maya Hanoomanjee discovered when she visited Brown Sequard that the majority of the inmates were there “ by default”, because they didn’t have a home. Three years later, Mireille Martin doesn’t have an opinion on why those kids have been left to rot at a psychiatric hospital.

Probably embarrassed by Martin’s shocking behavior ( it’s her trademark it seems – remember her aloofness when questioned about her ministry’s inaction regarding the alleged rape of a 14 year- old student of the MITD?), Health Minister Lormus Bundhoo had to come to the rescue – the situation is not normal, he will take up the matter with Martin, he told the press.

Here’s a thought, Mireille Martin – resign. Go home. Do us all a favour on Women’s day and let somebody who actually gives a damn, like Kalyanee Juggoo, do the job.