MCYS Family Development Unit is organizing a forum on "Family Talk" aims to promote and restore somewhat undervalued family value. It is an encourage sign that Singapore Government has realized the urgency of our ageing population and decreasing TFR and has initiatives to tickle the problem. We need more babies to add up to our projected 6.5 million population by 2030.
Full time mothers shall be viewed as partners with the government to achieve this national goal. If our male citizen can take two years "national service", why not our female citizens take two years to have more babies? That will be great "National Service" for Singapore.
A study in UK showed 40% highly educated women are childless by the age of 35, it is 20% increase in numbers over the past decade. Other graduates women who did have child, were having fewer children and later. The same situation happens right here in Singapore. There is a worry trend that single hood is more prominent in recent years. Dual income families have few children and later comparing their single income counterparts.
How do we encourage more women, especially highly educated women to start their family early and have more babies?
The current economic forces are too strong pulling more women, especially highly educated women into their career. Many of those women have no time, no energy to start family. At the same time, those who have started family found the cost of living in Singapore is too high, that women have to work to bring home more bacon. How to solve these paradoxes in Singapore? Will Singapore find a solution?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
More Babies Needed
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2 comments:
I think the answer lies with the individual. Will you have a baby? The government or anyone can do a lot of things, but if you ultimately do not want to have a baby, then no amount of incentives rewards or threat will make u have a baby, well, unless you don't have the capability to do it.
So, I do think individual's need to ask the question and direct it to themselves and not any external parties. Agree?
Dear Anonymous:
Thanks for your comments. I agree with you that to have a baby or not is purely personal choice. Interestingly, the study has shown that in modern era, while social integration is less and more individualism emerges, the individual life is however predetermined by the society setting. That is to say, many so call "personal choice" in fact is not up to a person but constrained by society as a whole. Therefore, I think, that Singapore policy makers has to in certain degree be responsible to this phenomenon.
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