SINGAPORE: Challenges faced by single-parent families in Singapore is a subject that has been very much in discussion over the past few days.
At the constituency level, grassroots too have been dealing with the problems faced by single-parent families.
The number of cases
of single-parent families in need of help are not large, and the cases
at the Meet-the-People sessions are often those who need assistance with
homes and schools.
"The mother and child would have to move on
in life and society has to provide that sort of support for both the
mother and child," said Ms Ellen Lee, Member of Parliament (MP) for
Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC).
"If people are important to us, the illegitimate child is also important to us."
"The
issue is (if we) should be assisting them to make their life just a
little bit easier; (if we) should be looking for ways that the single
mum who's never been married has as much assistance in raising her
children as another mum is married," said Dr Janil Puthucheary, MP for
Pasir Ris-Pungggol GRC.
Grassroots bodies have several programmes to help single-parent families in need.
"We
are working very closely with the community because at the end of the
day, we want to have community befrienders who actually befriend these
families so that whenever they need help, we are able to activate the
national scheme or local scheme," said Dr Teo Ho Pin, MP for Bukit
Panjang GRC.
"We try to ensure that the kids continue to remain
in school and the mother has a stable job to ensure that the family
continues to be stable," added Mr Zainudin Nordin, MP for Bishan-Toa
Payoh GRC.
The MPs said the ongoing Our Singapore Conversation is
expected to be a lively platform to discuss future trends in single
parenthood.
"The National Conversation is a very good opportunity
for us to get a very good feel of the pulse of Singapore society going
forward and then that would probably move into the situation where we
review policies such as maternity, housing affecting singles and single
families," said Mr Desmond Lee, MP for Jurong GRC.
"There are two
areas we should focus on: families who have or mothers or fathers are
single parents not through choices but through unhappy choices," said Mr
Hri Kumar Nair, MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
"We should help them and we should not forget that the child's welfare is paramount."
The dialogues are expected to take place both at the national and local constituency levels.
- CNA/xq
hanor hanor
no baby bonus leh. lousy.
they should stop all those policies of discrimination against divorce single parent.