The plight of single parents is indeed one of the more common social problems facing many countries today and with growing divorce rates, drug related problems and wars, etc, the numbers continue to grow. While it is true that single parents are not restricted to women alone, the vast majority of single-parent led homes are headed by women.
Divorce, death or teenage pregnancy, the reasons for being a single parent are many. It may be a choice you make or a decision you take, but there are thousands of single parents to support and guide you with single parenting. According to US Census Bureau Report, the duration 1994-2006, saw a steady rate of 9% single parent homes in US. The trend has seen more women as single parent than men. However, in the recent times men are also seen as single parents. According to statistics on single parent homes, 14% Australian households were single parent homes in 2003 and in 2005 United Kingdom saw 5.9 million families headed by single parents. Single parent homes are not just a phenomenon in the West, but a global one. Single parent homes are more at risk of desired outcomes, but with a better understanding of the dilemmas, worries and problems, the outcomes can be desired ones.
Single mothers have their hands full with being the head of the household, doing the job of two parents and trying to keep food on the table. And this burden multiplies when there is more than one child involved and they are infants or young children and the mother is poverty stricken, uneducated and possess no skills which could enable her to earn a decent wage to adequately take care of her financial needs. This situation often triggers several social problems such as prostitution, child labour, juvenile delinquency, gravitation of children to crime and illegal drugs and greater poverty.
Therefore, it is a problem which should not be ignored or treated lightly because of the immense suffering, both materially and emotionally, that it causes which would not augur well for the future well being of any society.
Any caring society would ensure that there are policies, programmes and systems in place to address such problems.
In this regard, our government has once again demonstrated its commitment towards addressing the many press problems in our society with announcement of the micro-credit scheme, slated to help transform the lives of many single parents, which will be inaugurated next week.
According to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon a major component of the intended beneficiaries would be single parents and much attention is expected to focus on those who have and would have successfully completed the training programmes that have been offered by the government.
He reminded that the idea, essentially, is to have money provided to the would-be entrepreneurs to get them to either acquire tools for the skills in which they were trained or acquire the start-up ingredients for business.
“In the context of the entrepreneurial skills training that continues to be offered and with dedication to mentoring of the would-be beneficiaries, the expectations, indeed, are that the scheme would contribute to transforming the lives of many of the single parents and their families,” Luncheon maintained.
About the size of the undertaking, he declared that “the size is not likely to end where it starts.”
Luncheon said in Parliament, right now, in response to interest shown by financial institutions, primarily the banks, there is a piece of intended legislation, the Fiscal Enactment (Amendment) Bill 2010.
It is really to amend the Income Tax Act to allow financial institutions to attract certain considerations, were they to invest in the micro-credit scheme.
The Fiscal Enactment Amendment Bill 2010 is intended to bolster the support offered by financial institutions resulting in comparable increase that could amount to $2-3 billion.
Luncheon said, already, an iron clad commitment has been given by one financial institution to put up $500M.
This certainly is the direction in which to go as it is in keeping with the old Chinese adage: “You don’t give a man a fish; you teach him how to catch it.” In other words you train people to help themselves, which is the essence of empowering the unfortunate and underprivileged.