The Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family will present until the end of this year a legislative proposal to introduce tougher administrative and criminal punishments for the parents who neglect their children or display uncaring attitudes toward them, said Viorica Dumbraveanu, department head at the Ministry, at an event launching a paper on the rights of the children who lack parental care, Info-Prim Neo reports. Before reaching Parliament, the proposal will be put up for public debates. According to the Ministry, the proposal aims to both protect children and make parents more responsible. The amendments will also involve greater obligations for the local authorities, which are responsible for making decisions on the identification and determining the form of placement for the children in difficult situations. The study on the rights of the children lacking parental care or risking separation from their families was carried out in support to the reform of residential institutions, which was launched by the Moldovan Government in 2006. Valentin Crudu, department head at the Ministry of Education, said that the reform helped to reduce the number of children in residential institutions from 10,000 in 2006 to 7,000 at present. As part of the same reform, in the next five years, the number of alternative, socially inclusive services in the field of social protection for children will increase. The study was conducted in February-April 2011 by IMAS and commissioned by EveryChild Moldova, with USAID financing. It involved interviewing children in residential institutions and foster homes, as well as child care professionals, from Chisinau, Calarasi, Ungheni, Balti, Cahul and Falesti.