Although efforts have been made in recent years to support the families in the Republic of Moldova, these still face a number of challenges that affect their wellbeing and stability. The Moldovan families face major economic difficulties, as well as limited access to high-quality services. Another challenge is the lack of appropriate policies to support the reconciliation of family and professional life. On the occasion of the International Day of Families, which is marked on May 15, the Center “Partnership for Development” (CPD) comes up with proposals to improve the impact of all measures approved in the last two years in Moldova, but also to diminish certain barriers or gender inequalities, IPN reports.
One of the proposals concerns the additional tax deduction for salaried parents who have children at the crèche, kindergarten or school. This initiative has the potential to bring significant benefits for both parents and the country’s economy as a whole. Moreover, this tax deduction can serve as an incentive to increase the participation of parents, in particular mothers, in the labor force, partially offsetting childcare costs and thus encouraging more parents to remain active.
Another proposal refers to increasing the efficiency and accessibility of prolonged education programs for children. In order to offer chances to more employed parents to enroll their children in such programs, the CPD recommends imposing an obligation for educational institutions to offer extended programs, with appropriate financial support from the state, increasing the financial resources allocated from the state budget for all public education institutions in order to enable more children up to 12 years old to attend these activities, without parents having to cover additional fees, including for food breaks. It is also proposed to revise the educational curriculum for this type of program so that it is centered as much as possible on the needs and interests of children.
The Center “Partnership for Development recommends increasing the access of single women/couples to in vitro fertilization services, adjusting the “First Home” program so as to make it more popular among families, making study programs more flexible in terms of duration and form of organization. The introduction of psychological counseling/psychotherapy services in the common mandatory health insurance program, the inclusion of treatments for the premenopause/menopause period in the list of compensated medicines, the introduction of menstrual medical leave are also among the CPD’s proposals.
The International Day of Families was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 1993. Since 2010, this day has been marked as a national holiday in the Republic of Moldova.
