House committee calls for more family-friendly initiatives

The Social Affairs Committee yesterday called for more family-friendly measures after research showed that 54 per cent of mothers were returning to their jobs within six months of giving birth.

The parliamentary committee discussed the importance of education on healthy relationships at a second meeting with Angela Abela, an expert on the subject.

She told the committee that 30 per cent of births in Malta in 2006 were outside wedlock.

A University study found that nearly all students saw nothing wrong in cohabitation and 42 per cent saw cohabitation as a step towards marriage.

Dr Abela expressed concern over a growing number of reports of casual sex, which stemmed from excessive drinking. And it had also been found that 21 per cent of young people dated persons they came across on the internet.

The members of the committee agreed with Dr Abela on the need for education aimed at healthy relationships. Dr Abela said such education should start in schools.

Research indicated that young people wanted to learn more on how to start, maintain or end a relationship. Many young people, she said, drank heavily to overcome their fear of starting a relationship.

Dr Abela underlined the need for a proper work-family balance. Mothers had to be given enough time to raise their children, with their fathers. This showed the need for more family-friendly measures, not least in the private sector, which was lagging the public sector in this area.

She noted that while the European average of maternity leave was 23 weeks, in Malta it was 13 weeks.