1980s The government enacted a slew of
The Social Development Unit was also established
in the same year to act as matchmaker and foster
romance between the unmarried university graduates
of Singapore.
social policies in an attempt to reverse the falling
birth rate. One of the reasons singled out by thenPrime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was that the female
university graduates were not marrying and
bearing children, “attributed in part to the apparent
preference of male university graduates for less
highly educated wives”.
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Ba
In 1987, the government launched the Have Three or
More (if you can afford it) initiative, introducing another
slew of incentives such as tax rebates for the third
children, day care subsidies, school enrolment priority
for large children, etc.
So, in 1984, the government announced the
Graduate Mother Scheme, which provided
“direct financial benefits and special
school enrolment privileges for graduate
mothers having more than two children.
It also offered financial and other
benefits for the voluntary sterilisation
of women with little education who
had at least one child and whose
total household income fell below a
certain specified level”. However, it was
scrapped as soon as it started in the
same year due to a public outcry.
“The major policy shift left parents baffled,
mothers indignant, sociologists sceptical
and private employers nervous about
potential costs,” an article in the Los
Angeles Times wrote on 21 June 1987.
“Are we being told to have more
children for the sake of the country or for
ourselves?” a father was quoted as saying
in the same article.
1990s – 2000s
In 1990, mothers who had their
second child before the age of
28 would enjoy a tax rebate of
S$20,000. In 2009, the SDU was
renamed the Social Development
Network and encouraged all
Singaporean couples, instead
of just unmarried university
graduates, to marry and
procreate. In 2013, Singapore’s
TFR was 1.19.
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In 2013, the
Marriage
and Parenthood
Package was significantly
enhanced, with the government
setting aside an increased S$2
billion a year to encourage
Singaporeans to not just get married
but have children.
Here are a couple of interesting
highlights from the package:
• Parents with three or more
children are given priority
allocation for new HDB flats.
• First-timer married couples with
children can rent a flat from HDB
at an affordable rental rate while
awaiting the completion of their flats.
• Working mothers will be entitled
to maternity leave benefits if they
are dismissed without sufficient
cause or retrenched within the
full duration of their pregnancy.
• Adoptive mothers with an
adopted infant aged below 12
months will be entitled to four
weeks of paid adoption leave.
• Newborns will be covered
under MediShield from birth
with no underwriting, including
for congenital and neonatal
conditions, so long as their
parents do not opt them out.
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The essential free monthly companion for every Singaporean family, Family & Life aims to inform,
educate and inspire the contemporary urbanite parent. With hard-hitting personality profiles and
a creative editorial team that is unafraid of pushing the envelope and tackling controversial topics
related to family living, Family & Life hopes to get families talking and bonding at the same time.
Jun 2014 • Family & Life
13