This Labour Day, I pay homage to the endless work that housewives put in to ensure they raise a happy and healthy family around the clock.
Looking after the family and managing a home, are by far two of the most challenging jobs in the history of mankind.
Being a housewife essentially is a 24-hour job with no emergency leaves, sick leaves, annual leaves, salary and pension. Yet housewives continue to dedicate their entire lives to this unquantifiable labour.
Working women who come home after work are magically transformed into housewives.
Single mothers as housewives take on the role of fathers as well. I would know it – my sister and I were raised by a single mother after my father’s passing in 1995.
In December 2022, the Madani government introduced the Housewives’ Social Security Act 2022 (Act 838) that was passed in Parliament and the Senate that kicked off Socso’s efforts to provide a social protection net for women - married or unmarried, widows and single mothers - in the form of a contribution of RM10 per month or an annual contribution of RM120.
The contribution can be made by the housewife, her family members or even her employer.
The Housewives’ Social Protection Scheme or Skim Keselamatan Sosial Suri Rumah provides protection to housewives against domestic accidents or other incidents in the course of performing their household duties and affairs, as well as for housewives who are afflicted with an illness or invalidity.
It is categorised into two. The first is the Domestic Accident Protection Benefits covering medical benefits, permanent disablement benefits, constant attendance allowance, funeral benefits, physical rehabilitation or dialysis facilities and survivors' pensions.
The second is the Invalidity Protection Benefits where housewives can enjoy morbid allowance, constant attendance allowance, physical rehabilitation or dialysis facilities, funeral benefit and survivors’ pension.
Malaysia is amongst three other countries worldwide that have a social protection scheme for housewives.
Increasing awareness
On March 15, Human Resources Minister Steven Sim announced that a new committee will be set up to increase awareness and to encourage more family members to contribute to housewives under this scheme.
The committee has been working tirelessly to strategise how to ensure that women, particularly housewives, receive correct information, especially those from the B40 and in rural areas, with a target of at least 500,000 registrations this year.
To date, we have over three million housewives but only 253,794 have registered for this scheme.
As of April 21, Sarawak tops the list of the most housewives who have registered at 56,128, followed by Sabah at 49,780, Selangor (16,867), Johore (16,588), Terengganu (16,348), Kelantan (15,489), Perak (15,397), Penang (13,953), Kedah (13,855), Negeri Sembilan (11,161), Pahang (9,154), Malacca (8,056), Perlis (3,725) and the total for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan at 7,293.
Ethnic-wise, Malays top the list at 137,796 followed by bumiputera Sabah at 20,631, bumiputera Sarawak (19,204), Indians (17,034), Chinese (10,399), Orang Asli (472) and others at 48,258.
While the maximum age at the time of registration is set before 55 and is only applicable to women, the Human Resources Ministry is committed to increasing the age to 60 and opening the scheme to men who are homemakers too.
As the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child”, I believe, in this scenario, it takes all stakeholders and all hands on deck to provide a secure and sustainable social protection scheme for housewives – including encouraging members of the private sectors to sponsor matching grants for women who are unable to contribute or in the event their husbands or family members are unable to.
With such a scheme in place, the objective now is to up the ante on the dissemination of information on the scheme through community leaders, councillors, assemblypersons, MPs and senators, including civil society and all NGOs to help pass the word on this social protection by the Madani government for housewives.
More information can be obtained here.
“Nothing will work unless you do” - Maya Angleou.
Happy Labour Day to our housewives – our unsung heroes! - Mkini
KASTHURI PATTO is chairperson of Socso’s Housewives’ Social Protection Scheme, DAP deputy secretary for international affairs and DAP Women's vice-chairperson.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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