In a country where marriage seems like a ticket to a more secure and stable lifestyle, it’s quite surprising to find out that there are growing divorce rates in the Gulf State.
As the government continues to address issues that affect the country’s economic stability, there still seems to be other fundamental problems taking place in the background, affecting families as well as the society in general. More women no longer feel they belong in the house to look after the family, considering the financial burdens she has to deal with for herself as well as the household. This, in effect, results to more Kuwaiti women filing for divorce.
Salary for Stay-at-Home Moms Proposed to Address High Divorce Rates
Considering this phenomenon, the government is determined to address the issue by all means, the most prominent of which is to allow the married Kuwaiti women to stay at home and receive the full monthly salary that they would have earned had they chosen to work, as shared in a report by MENAFN.
Upon review, the concept is optional, as there are terms and conditions that should be met, such as preventing the recipient of this benefit from hiring a personal driver, hiring just one domestic worker to help in house chores, in addition to restricting her from taking employment in the private sector or owning a business.
As such, MP Majed Al- Mutairi submitted a legislative proposal to grant stay-at-home mothers a monthly salary of between KD 500 and KD 700.
While this may seem like a small incentive for Kuwaiti mothers to stay at home to take care of the household, the idea of keeping families together goes above the concept of personal independence, which also has merits for the future of Kuwait’s society.
Meanwhile, in terms of domestic work, it is still very much common to have a domestic worker in the Kuwaiti household to help with the chores. Compared to what domestic workers cover in the house, KD 500 per month, as an allowance or a small incentive for full-time mothers, isn’t such a very bad thing.
However, while the intentions mean good and well, lawmakers should also consider that no two divorce cases are the same, meaning, what could be a problem for one marriage may not be a problem for another.
To put things in perspective though, it’s important for lawmakers to understand that there may be other (personal) issues to deal with for women who decide to end their marriages, in order to come up with a more specific solution that would prove to be crucial in saving a marriage.