And so we come yet again to that annual affair when the Government announces its budget for the coming year. 2015 will be quite a “taxing” (pun intended) year on many mothers’ purses, bearing in mind the financial pressures that come from the recent 20 cent hike on petrol prices and also the impending 1st April 2015 rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Even so, PM Dato’ Seri Najib Razak announced that his administration has allocated RM2.26 billion to the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (headed by Dato’ Sri Rohani Abdul Karim), and mothers throughout Malaysia can expect – at the very least – the implementation of the following:
- the 1Malaysia Support for Housewives Programmes (1MS4HW) which aims to provide work opportunities for housewives, especially from the lower income group
- TalentCorp Malaysia’s Women Career Comeback Programme (WCC) which seeks to encourage more professional women to return to the job market
- the building of Women Special Protection Homes in the Eastern, Northern and Central Zones
- single mother entrepreneurs can participate in the Single Mother Skill Incubator Programme (I-KIT), Women Entrepreneurship Incubator Programme (IkUnita) and Women Core Development Programme
- allocation of RM30 million for Indian women entrepreneurs via the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) programme
Among the most heated discussions revolved around the merits and demerits of the one-year maternity leave policy for women civil servants, which has been extended beyond a mother’s biological child to include stepchildren, legally adopted children, foster children and children with disabilities.
Of course, questions arise as to whether the private sector could/should follow suit, or how such a move would affect productivity, or if we should even be thinking about such ‘cost benefit analysis’ when it comes to raising our children.
One more policy of note is the review of guidelines around private sector workplace childcare centres, to help employers have such facilities on-site. We feel this policy is overdue, and look forward to reviewing child care centres soon!
