Mr Speaker, Sir, the White Paper marks the culmination of a
meaningful one-and-a-half-year journey to further advance Singapore women's
development. Many organisations representing both men and women, students'
unions and members of the public stepped forward with their feedback.
We are extremely grateful to organisations such as SCWO, NTUC U
Women and Family, People's Association-Women's Integration Netowrk (PA-WIN),
PAP Women's Wing and Young PAP, Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura (PPIS), AWARE
and also trade associations and corporates for putting forward
proposals. My fellow co-chairs, Minister of State Low Yen Ling,
Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu Mahzam and I are deeply grateful for the inputs
from everyone.
In the White Paper, we had grouped our 25 Action Plans into five
areas not only for clarity but also to allow for thorough and effective
implementation. After all the conversations, it is now the time to take action.
We are determined to see this through over the decade, just as how the
Government has advanced the progress of women over the past decades.
Some shared that the White Paper only seems to focus on
Singapore women. I would like to clarify that many of the Action Plans such as
mindset shifts and protection from violence and harm extend to all. Let me
highlight a line in the Taskforce Report on Family Violence which was
referenced in the White Paper: "Violence against all persons should not be
condoned regardless of nationality, marital status, gender, race, religion,
sexual orientation."
At the same time, we know that there are groups of women who
face unique challenges. To address their concerns holistically, we have other
workstreams such as a committee which looks at residency and benefits for
foreign spouses which Minister Indranee chairs, supported by Minister of State
Desmond Tan and myself.
For today, I will speak about specific groups of women who are
vulnerable, their challenges and how, as a society, we can collectively
protect, support and empower them.
We convened the Taskforce on Family Violence in February 2020
before the full effects of the pandemic on family life became apparent, which
signalled our concern and focus on family violence. We brought in various
partners, including the Family Violence Specialist Centres such as PAVE who
have spent decades supporting families affected by family violence.
We firmly believe that in Singapore, one of the safest cities in
the world, that no woman, child or vulnerable adult should have to live in
fear, jump at the sound of approaching footsteps or be subjected to the abusive
words and actions of a perpetrator of violence. The home is supposed to be a
sanctuary for adult and child alike and we will do our utmost as authorities
and as members of the public to protect those whose sanctuary has been violated
by physical and sexual violence, psychological and emotional abuse and neglect.
One example of our firm commitment to tackle family violence is
how we have taken steps to expand the National Anti-Violence Helpline (NAVH). I
had announced the renaming of the NAVH to National Anti-Violence and Sexual
Harassment Helpline to better reflect the scope of its services. This one-stop
national helpline provides support for all forms of violence, including sexual
violence and sexual harassment, in a familial or non-familial setting.
To expand the capacity of the helpline to take more calls, MSF
has provided more resources to social service agency Montfort Care, which
operates the NAVH, increasing the number of operators to handle calls by 70%.
The MSF Adult Protective Service and Child Protective Service will also help to
train the new operators to equip them to perform their roles effectively. MSF
is prepared to set aside more resources if there is a further increase in call
volume.
Accessibility is another key area that we are looking at. By
end-2022, witnesses and survivors will be able to report violence or abuse with
greater ease through new modes such as a web link and mobile application.
Mr Speaker, Sir, I have seen with my own eyes, the anger in the
eyes of a perpetrator of violence and the damage that the perpetrator can cause
to families. We will not stand by and watch vulnerable adults, men or women,
children be subject to family and domestic violence. With the 16
recommendations from the Taskforce on Family Violence, we will act swiftly,
strengthen deterrence and prevention, and rehabilitate perpetrators.
We will enhance MSF’s emergency response team. Appointed social
service professionals will be empowered to go on site and jointly work with the
police to address immediate safety issues. This is by no means a soft approach,
just because social service professionals are involved. If there is a risk of
family violence recurring, the social service professionals will be empowered
to decide on the issuance of a time limited protection notice or help victim
survivors move out of their home temporarily.
Victim-survivors facing immediate risks are not left
unprotected and in the vulnerable position of having to take care of himself or
herself against a perpetrator.
The Court may make an order to authorise Adult Protective
Services to remove a vulnerable adult from the place of residence if he or she
is experiencing abuse and the removal is required for safety. This will also
include persons with disabilities.
We will also increase the penalties for the violation of PPOs.
Courts will also be able make other forms of orders, such as non-visitation or
non-communication orders. Public consultations for the related Women’s Charter
amendments will start from tomorrow and run till the end of April.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim suggested adopting the Netherlands’
Orange House model of shelter for family violence survivors, for which the
shelter is in a visible setting within the community.
As part of the step-down care to the community, residents of
crisis shelters with low risk levels have an option of staying in individual
housing units. Crisis shelters also adopt trauma-informed approaches to
supporting family violence survivors and their children. However, for some
aspects of the Orange House model, such as the open location of the shelter
where perpetrators know where the survivors live, our assessment is that this
may not be suitable at this point in time.
Next on sexual and hurt offences. Minister Shanmugam had shared
about the sentencing framework for sexual and hurt offences. The relevant Penal
Code amendments have since come into force on 1 March 2022.
I would like to highlight that the trauma of sexual offences has
a long shadow. Victim-survivors can remain traumatised by memories of the
episode, have flashbacks that can be triggered by anything remotely related to
the incident, develop phobias of interacting and being close to people, and
suffer from self-esteem issues. Being sexually violated takes away that feeling
of inner sanctity that resides deep in every individual and some survivors may
withdraw and develop a sense of detachment to protect themselves from further
hurt.
We will support victims of sexual violence, not just in
the form of police enforcement and laws and penalties but also in the form of
psychosocial support and care. All Family Violence Specialist Centres and the
PAVE Integrated Services for Individual and Family Protection Specialist Centre
will be able to provide comprehensive support for all forms of intra- and
extra-familial violence, including sexual violence by the second half of 2022.
Our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have similarly further
strengthened support for victims of sexual misconduct through various
measures. They have enhanced training for first responders to equip them
with the skills to support victims sensitively.
Twenty-four hour helplines for student care and dedicated
victim-survivor care units have been established and counselling services have
been enhanced. If the case involves a student or staff from the same
institution, No-Contact Orders can be imposed as added protection.
But we know that the heart of the issue underlying many sexual
offences lies in the mindsets that we have in society. We know concrete action
needs to be taken to emphasise the value of respect and teach appropriate
behaviour and safety, starting from a very young age from our children and our
youths. And this is being done through the education journey from preschool,
all the way to tertiary education.
Under the revised Nurturing Early Learners framework, preschool
teachers will be encouraged to teach children aged four to six appropriate
behaviours around body safety.
In Primary schools, as part of Character and Citizenship
Education (CCE), students learn about personal safety and the protection of
oneself from unhealthy relationships, sexual grooming, exploitation and abuse.
In Secondary schools and at the pre-University level, students
learn that respect for boundaries is fundamental for healthy relationships. The
refreshed CCE curriculum brings a greater emphasis on the need to communicate,
assert and respect boundaries for self and others, and the social-emotional and
legal consequences one faces if they overstep these boundaries.
Most IHLs already have compulsory modules on respect and
appropriate behaviour for students today, and the remaining IHLs will roll out
such modules by mid-2022. These modules aim to promote deeper shifts in culture
and mindset that will create a safe and respectful community for all. In the
Autonomous Universities, students discuss and reflect on issues related to
consent. Similarly, modules in the Polytechnics and ITE emphasise the
importance of respecting boundaries and the consequences for overstepping these
boundaries.
Mr Speaker, we know that changing mindsets does not happen
overnight and that is why I have laid out step-by-step what is being done for
our children so that when they grow up to become adults, they are respectful,
they are discerning and they are responsible.
But beyond mindset shifts to prevent offensive and inappropriate
behaviours between the sexes, it is also important to catalyse mindset shifts
so that women and men become equal partners in all areas of life, in both the
workplaces and at home.
In school materials, women’s experiences, contributions, and
achievements are highlighted alongside those of their male counterparts, as
content examples.
The refreshed CCE curriculum has Family Education as a key
content area. Students learn to appreciate that members within families can
play different roles regardless of gender, and that shared parental
responsibilities should be discussed and mutually agreed upon.
Ms Poh Li San and Ms Nadia Samdin spoke about the need to
encourage women and girls to pursue careers in STEM. The IHLs have ongoing
efforts to encourage women to enter STEM fields. For example, NTU’s Promotion
of Women in Engineering, Research and Science (POWERS), this programme aims to
recruit and empower women with a long-term goal of increasing gender diversity
in STEM careers.
At the Secondary level, more than half of our Secondary school
offered the Applied Learning Programme in STEM areas, providing a hands-on
approach to enable students to appreciate the relevance of their learning
beyond the classroom in community and STEM industry settings.
The Education and Career Guidance curriculum, as part of CCE in
schools, also encourages students to explore a variety of education and career
pathways. ECG Counsellors guide students to recognise how gender stereotypes
may limit education or career pathways and to instead explore career sectors
aligned to their interests and skills, including but not limited to STEM. These
efforts in formal education complement the crucial role of parents at home and
the efforts of our community partners such as Family for Life to change
mindsets.
It is only when respect becomes a fundamental tenet that we can
expect that when the children grow up, that men and women see each other as
equals and treat each other with dignity.
I would now like to touch on our support measures for women with
differing needs.
Firstly, on Single Unwed parents. The Alliance for Action to
Strengthen Marriages and Family Relationships (AFAM) has a focal area on
supporting single parents and we are looking into single parents’ access to
information, alternative childcare arrangements and socio-emotional support
tailored to address the high stress and stigma faced by single parents.
I would like to acknowledge and thank organisations, like
Morning Star Community Services, HELP Family Service Centre and PPIS As-Salaam
who have been dedicated in working to support single-parent families for many,
many years.
As part of the work of AFAM, we will work on a new pilot. The
MSF will partner Daughters of Tomorrow (DOT) to pilot a child-minding service
for low-income women, including single parents, outside childcare operating
hours. This is intended to ascertain the demand for such services.
Ms Hany Soh and Dr Wan Rizal will be happy to note that the
childminding pilot has built-in flexibility to enable users to specify their
requirements, including arrangements for childminders to pick up the child from
school and the location of childminding. Based on their needs, DOT will match
with suitable childminders. The details of the pilot are being worked out and
we will share more details in due course.
The AFAM is also supporting MSF and NCSS’s work with HCSA
Community Services to enhance their Single Parent Informed, Involved, Included
(SPIN) programme portal. The enhanced portal aims to be a one-stop portal which
better consolidates information on support schemes for single parents, and
other types of useful information such as the location of nearby child and
youth services.
Many of the initiatives that Minister of State Gan Siow Huang
spoke about earlier, including flexible workplace arrangements and support for
back-to-work women, will benefit all, including single unwed parents.
On housing, the HDB has assured that, following their public
rental application, single unwed parents will be informed of the outcome within
three weeks of receiving all required information. For complex cases that need
more time, HDB will provide an interim update that the application is still
being assessed.
Ms Carrie Tan spoke about the housing insecurity that single
mothers may face. We have a network of crisis shelters and transitional
shelters to help our single mothers who are homeless and require social work
intervention. While the shelters aim to help the residents move into long-term
stable housing within six months, we understand that some residents may require
longer time to do so. Hence, we will extend their stays if social workers
assess that they need more time to work on the issues that they face.
Mr Louis Ng suggested that the full suite of Marriage and
Parenthood incentives be made available to single unwed parents.
I had shared at my Committee of Supply (COS) speech in February
this year that 12 line items, which include MediSave Grant for Newborns, Infant
Care Subsidy, Childcare Subsidy, Child Development Account, and so on, are
available to every Singaporean child regardless of the marital status of their
parents.
But, at the same time, our Marriage and Parenthood policies seek
to support parenthood within marriage. This is because our society continues to
strongly value marriage and having children within marriage.
Members spoke about paternity and maternity leave entitlements
and shared parental leave. I think we can all agree that employees generally
will welcome more leave – infant care leave, childcare leave, eldercare leave.
And we can also all agree that any leave enhancements will need to balance
parents' caregiving needs with employers' manpower and operational needs.
I have listened to the various proposals from various
Members. We do not differ when it comes to principles, namely, that
mothers are differently impacted by the arrival of a child because they need
time to recuperate from childbirth. But we also agree that men should play an
important role in their child's early years and that men should be encouraged
to take their paternity leave and parental leave.
How the leave then ought to be shared between the parents is
thus a function of the overall total number of leave days provided to new
parents, individual family considerations and societal mindsets and norms about
the roles of fathers.
I fully agree with Ms Carrie Tan's point that we need shifts in
societal mindsets and norms so that couples can best decide how they can
jointly take care of their new child without preconceived stereotypes on
caregiving. In addition, workplace support is also important as it impacts the
willingness of fathers to take leave. We should also not forget the very
important point that Minister of State Gan Siow Huang has made with regards to
flexible work arrangements as its availability can make a big difference to how
caregiving arrangements can be sorted out. Mr Speaker, Sir, in Mandarin,
please.
(In Mandarin): A few weeks ago, I
attended a dialogue session on Singapore Women's Development organised by the
Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations. As housewives and
caregivers, several female participants shared concerns about their financial
situation.
The family is the cornerstone of our society, and women play a
crucial role in the family. Around us, we see many women juggling both work and
family commitments. There are also many women who are homemakers, working hard
for their families over the years. We know deep in our hearts that a warm,
harmonious family provides a spiritual harbour for family members to return to
after a hard day's work. With their tenderness, patience and resilience, women
provide emotional support and assistance to family members.
Their contributions are not directly captured in our
GDP, but we know that their contributions have enabled their husbands and
children to succeed, and helped build strong and happy families.
Every family is unique and the couple will share
responsibilities according to their situation, in a way that is acceptable and
suitable to both parties. The Government respects every family's choice and
does its best to create a fair, harmonious environment, and formulate
pro-family policies that keep up with the times, to provide relevant support to
families based on their needs.
The Government will also help women who have contributed to
their families for many years and are approaching retirement age but have
limited savings through schemes such as the Home Caregiving Grant and Silver
Support Scheme. Family members can also show their care for their loved ones by
tapping on the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme to help them save more for old
age. These top-ups to their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts are eligible
for tax relief.
While the Government does step in to help families in need, we
should not intervene in a manner that is too intrusive, such as to monetise the
relationship between a couple through mandating a spousal allowance. This will
cause spousal relationships to deteriorate, turning it into monetary
transactions with the Government acting as the arbiter.
Wives and housewives often say that they hope to be appreciated
by their families, and that their contributions should not be taken for
granted. They also hope to be financially self-sufficient, to take care of
their own needs in old age when they are unable to work, instead of relying on
children who may need to take care of their own families.
I would like to urge all family members to fully recognise one
another's contributions to the family, especially women who are wives and
mothers, and to acknowledge and thank them for their hard work over the years.
Besides expressing our appreciation, caring for and respecting family members,
we can also consider topping up their CPF accounts which will be matched by the
Government. This will give homemakers greater financial assurance for their
future needs.
Together with contributions from the community and families, we
can make Singapore a fairer and more inclusive society for our future
generations.
(In English): Lastly, I would like to address questions raised on elective
egg freezing.
Since the announcement has gone out, I have received many emails
from women who welcome the choice but are concerned about the age limit.
Miss Cheng Li Hui had also suggested to extend the age limit to
40 years old. The upper age limit of 35 years old is pegged to the existing age
limits for donor eggs for Assisted Reproduction Treatment. Some ask why this is
so since this is a woman's own eggs rather than a donor's eggs. The reason is
because it is founded on similar current international scientific evidence and
professional consensus, which is that egg quality tends to decline
significantly after 35 years old. We are making a big move with regards to
providing the choice of elective egg freezing. it.
The Government had taken time to study the issue because there
are differing voices and views and concerns about elective egg freezing, such
as whether we are encouraging women to put off marriage and parenthood when
women face the hard truths and the scientific facts of the biological
clock. The Government has the responsibility to let citizens know
factually what the medical odds are of conceiving with frozen eggs.
According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the
chance that a frozen egg will yield a baby currently stands at 2% to 12%. The
further we push out the age range, the more the success rates fall. We have to
be honest with our women because the procedure is invasive, it takes a toll on
the women both physically and emotionally, and also costs the patient recurrent
costs for storage.
But that said, we recognise with Miss Cheng Li Hui's point that
many women only start thinking about fertility and egg freezing in their 30s. I
would like to assure Miss Cheng Li Hui and many who hold similar views that we
will continue to monitor medical developments and international data. For
women who missed the local criteria slightly and who wish to appeal, they may
seek the Assisted Reproduction practitioner's assistance to appeal on their
behalf. More details will be provided to the AR Centres in due course.
I agree with Miss Cheng Li Hui that with more conversations,
there is more awareness. I hope that this move to allow women to have the
choice to freeze their eggs has also created some awareness and space for
conversations about fertility health and cause women to think about these
issues earlier.
The Alliance for Action to Strengthen Marriages and Family
Relationships is also starting to raise awareness on this matter to encourage
couples to discuss and check their fertility early. The Government is also
looking into supporting couples with ready access to evidence-based fertility
health information to empower them to make fertility decisions and seek help if
needed.
Ms Janet Ang spoke about her concern that younger women will now
choose to postpone childbearing. I would like to assure the Member and others
who have similar concerns, that we will continue to encourage and support
Singaporeans to fulfil their marriage and parenthood goals, and to do so early
to increase the chances of conceiving naturally and reduce age-related
fertility complications. To guard against misinformation, and to help women
make an informed choice, women will have to undergo pre-procedure counselling.
We will highlight the limitations, the risks involved and that aged parenthood
has its own challenges.
In conclusion, the White Paper has, at its heart, the desire of
the Government to continue working alongside the community and all stakeholders
to support our women while empowering them with opportunities and solutions,
regardless of the circumstances that they are in.