The Human Services Ministry says it receives about 300 applications daily to its Single Parents Registry.
During a recent interview, Minister Priya Manickchand stressed that the objective of the registry is to collect data which will inform any interventions that the ministry will make. She said registrants’ financial status, the age of the child/children and their location must be considered. “I want to make it clear that not because you are registered, it means that that person will necessarily benefit from interventions…” Manickchand said. It is hoped that the interventions will put single parents in a better position to provide for their children.
Manickchand told Stabroek News that while she cannot quote a number as regards the status of the registration process outside the city, approximately 340 applications go into the ministry every day. She explained that the registry is for single parents; any person who has sole financial responsibility for a child or children. This includes mothers, fathers, grandparents or any other person financially responsible for a child. Manickchand said the type of job that the single parent has in no way affects one’s chance of registering.
The minister said the objective of the programme is to establish how many single-parent households exist. She said that when all the data has been collected the ministry would then examine interventions that can be created to make these vulnerable family units stronger. “If you don’t have data then you would not know how many single parent households are out there… So we need this,” she said, adding that no interventions have yet been made and this is due to the absence of the relevant data. Manickchand pointed out that this programme was one of the ministry’s visions and was included in this year’s PPP/C manifesto.
As regard issues such as domestic violence, senior citizens and vulnerable households, the last point in the ministry’s section of the manifesto says that a Single Parent Assistance Plan would be implemented which will include more credit for income generating activities. The minister said too, many single parent households benefit from uniform vouchers and public welfare and that no government can take care of all single-parent families in one round. It has to be a continuous process.
On April 23, the ministry started the registration process to create a database for the programme. A sum of $100 million was allocated in this year’s budget for the setting up a fund to provide support to vulnerable single parents. Application can be uplifted from the ministry, schools, regional and neighbourhood democratic council offices as well as from social workers. The deadline for applications is Thursday. (Zoisa Fraser)
