Forum: More can be done for families beyond extended paid paternity leave
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I have been following the latest developments on extended paid paternity leave with interest ( Paid paternity leave doubled to 4 weeks, unpaid infant care leave from 6 to 12 days,
It is heartening that the Government is actively taking steps to encourage fathers’ involvement in the care of their newborns. This signals that child-bearing and child-rearing are important to our society.
While the latest move is a step in the right direction, I wonder if more can be done to send a stronger signal for families to have more children.
It seems that we have been taking a mostly incremental approach in encouraging fertility so far, in terms of baby bonuses and paternity leave.
If the demographic crisis is as existential as the Government says it is, we should consider drastic measures to arrest our falling fertility rate ( Singapore birth rates hit record low in 2022, along with highest number of yearly deaths since 1960,
To reverse the hangover from Singapore’s previous Stop at Two campaign, an equally strong counter-campaign coupled with comprehensive measures needs to be launched now.
The Government needs to send the message that Two is Good, Three is Better – encouraging families to have two, three or more children in a shorter span of time.
Benefits given to families under such policies should be tiered according to the number of children that they have – for example, housing grants that increase according to the number of children that a family has, increased subsidies for childcare/tertiary education for each subsequent child, or even free childcare for the third child onwards, and granting the oldest sibling preferential admission into primary schools should they have two or more younger siblings.
The Government can also include young couples and parents of child-bearing age in policy-making panels to figure out what measures would be most impactful.
Andrea Lim
