PR's RM4.5bil budget for women: 10 times more than Umno-BN's "miserly" plans - Azizah

Women’s issues are wide and varied. Women make up half of the population, and yet we are under-represented in the workforce and in politics. I speak as one who was a working woman, an eye doctor in government hospitals for 15 years while juggling further studies and motherhood. I also speak as a muslimah and a mother of 6 children.

Thankfully all my children were blessed with the opportunity for higher education and they are leading happy and productive lives now, despite the dark days when their father was jailed. I also speak as a grandmother of three grandchildren.

Today, I also address all of you, as a politician. Thus, it is with this wide and varied experience and understanding that I wish to discuss with you, the key matter of women’s issues.

7 key thrusts

As you may know, the women of Pakatan Rakyat are led by YB Hajah Zuraida from PKR, YB Chong Eng from DAP and YB Hajah Siti Zailah of PAS. They have put together a policy document, called “The Malaysian Women’s Agenda”.

This document calls for seven comprehensive thrusts to uplift and empower women: the need for better education, better health and quality of life, economic equity, social safety net, political participation, comprehensive legal protection from discrimination and nurturing young women.

Spending plans to implement these policies are contained in our Pakatan Rakyat Budget.

Social safety net

I wish to highlight, as a contrast to UMNO BN’s miserly budget, our two most critical policies:

> Caruman Wanita Nasional (National Contributions Fund for Women); and

> Childcare Allowance.

Homemakers to get RM600 a year

We propose the Caruman Wanita Nasional as a social safety net scheme for women who are homemakers. The idea is simple; in the event the husband dies, becomes disabled or divorces his wife, the woman homemaker will have some financial savings to fall back on.

A Pakatan Rakyat government will provide a yearly payment of RM600 to homemakers, whilst ensuring the husband also contributes a sum ranging from RM120 to RM1,200 per year. The scheme’s target is to ensure that a homemaker will have at least a savings of RM30,000 at age 50.

We expect 5 million homemakers to participate in the scheme and it will cost about RM3 billion a year. This policy is not just based on compassionate grounds, but on real life problems faced by homemakers. Homemakers tend to have little to no income, so they almost have no savings of their own. It is also designed to encourage personal savings, and it is part of our broader policy to increase disposable income of households.

RM1,000 child support a year for poor households

The Childcare Allowance scheme is designed for working women of poor households earning less than RM1,000 a month. For every child below the age of 12, we will provide a childcare support fund of RM1,000 a year per child. This will go some way toward helping the working mother pay for a baby sitter for her child, whilst she works.

There are currently about 470,000 poor households that will qualify for this and at an average headcount of 2 children per household being below 12, this program will cost about RM940 million. This is not a handout policy but it is an economic instrument to enable more women to join the workforce.

In conclusion, our two projects for empowering women call for spending of RM3.94 billion. All in, we intend to spend up to RM4.5 billion a year on programs for women. This is 10 times more than UMNO BN’s spending plans for women.

Dato’ Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat