The Moldovan legislation discriminates against the parents of children with severe disabilities, compared with the parents who abandoned their disabled children in state institutions. The conclusion was reached by the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Gender Equality.
Council member Doina Ioana Straisteanu told a news conference that the parents of children with disabilities cannot get a job as they need permanent care. When the parents reach retirement, they do not have the required length of service and get an allowance of only 500 lei.
The state allocates annually about 45,000 lei for maintaining a disabled person in a residential institution at a time when the annual allowance for children with disabilities is 8,000-9,000 lei.
The Council recommends the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family to include the period during which the person looks after disabled children into the length of service and to annul the age limit for working as personal assistants for parents of children with severe disabilities. The legislation now enables only the women younger than 57 and the men younger than 62 to work as personal assistants.
The Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Gender Equality was instituted to ensure protection against discrimination and the equality of all those who consider themselves victims of discrimination.
