There is a multitude of barriers that influence the withdrawal of women from the labor market, starting with domestic chores that are not equally divided between partners. The women allot much more time, and much more often, for looking after the children and for housework. The parents cannot yet divide between them the childcare leave because there is no flexibility and much fewer fathers than mothers benefit from childcare leave, Alina Andronache, project coordinator at the Center “Partnership for Development” (CPD), stated in a public session entitled “Family Policies for Wanted Fertility: More Crèches in Support of Parents, IPN reports.
According to Alina Andronache, no matter how much flexibility is offered to parents, if these do not have different options of childcare services, the other implemented measures fail to produce results. In 2018, the public authorities initiated a reform by which they aimed to facilitate the employment of mothers. The partners can choose one of the childcare leave options – for three years or for two years and two months. The second reform enabled the parents to return to work anytime and to get child benefit besides the salary. The last, most important change was that the state undertook to institutionalize children from the age of two in the education system, while crèches are intended for children aged between 0 and two.
“Even if measures to support families with children were taken, these fail because there are few public crèches opened in the Republic of Moldova. Currently, the state does not have the capacity to include more than 11% of the children in the education system. Respectively, the securing of a place at public crèches is a serious barrier when we speak about the mothers’ return to work after childcare leave,” stated Alina Andronache.
UNICEF Country Representative in Moldova Maha Damaj said the Republic of Moldova is one of the countries that adopted family polices that support the early development of children. “The children in the Republic of Moldova need the parents’ support to develop and grow up, while the parents need the support of employers to be able to become parents. The working parents often face options. Some can be forced to leave their small children unsupervised and this endangers the wellbeing of children. The children of an early age are exposed to the risk of being hurt. Even one accident is too much for a child. Therefore, the accessible childcare services are very important, including in times of a pandemic or crisis,” stated Maha Damaj.
UNFPA Moldova Resident Representative Nigina Abaszada noted it is important that the parental responsibilities should be divided between the mother and the father and this will have a positive impact on the demographic situation.
