Romania The mums and the babies, eternal gratitude!

December 13, 2010

Comment: Until recently, Romanians used to be proud at least about one aspect regarding the child protection system in their country: the two-year-long maternity leave, paid at 85% of the salary for the working women and about 150 euros for the unemployed ones. “Suddenly, Romania has no women anymore, but mums. And it has no children, but babies. It became a country for mums and babies”, declares Traian Basescu, the Romanian president when asked to comment on the latest reform proposal of the maternity leave.

The article published by "Jurnalul National” proposes a wide choice of voices reacting to the Government’s proposal of giving two alternatives for maternity leave after the birth of a baby: one of one year, paid at 85% of the salary, or another of two years, with about 300 euros payment per month. The interviews quoted create the image of a state obliging women to beg the Government, reducing them to baby making machines or to careless parents. One voice in particular uses a strong choice of words, with the mother teaching her baby girl that Romania is a country where you are supposed to “produce” from early childhood. The use of the verb is not at random, as it immediately guides the reader to the second meaning of the word, “producing” being the euphemism of “practising prostitution”.

The journalist does not give space to opposite perspectives on the issue. None of the testimonies talk about satisfied women for whom one year paid period, for example, may be a good option allowing them to continue a working career. Actually, the majority of the Romanian media coverage supported the general trend of critics of the Government’s unpopular reforms. The public was not informed that in numerous EU countries maternity leave is far shorter than in Romania, even after the latest changes that will be introduced.

What the Romanian mass-media, including the present article avoided to mention is that the debate on the length of maternity leave is only one aspect of a larger framework that the Ministry of Labour drafted in the new Social Code at the beginning of November. If the proposal on this subject generated national wide reactions, with women protesting in the streets, all the other significant changes within the new Social Code attracted only the attention of some NGOs.

On the website dedicated to the news from the NGO world, the Federation for the Development of Civil Society published the whole text of the Social Code proposal, inviting NGOs to a “collective protest action”. The Government’s proposal provoked reaction by the general public only on one issue, the lengths of the maternity leave. Civil society brings to light another significant issue, with long term effects: the lack of dialogue between the state institutions responsible for the social assistance and the non-governmental sector, delivering services to the beneficiaries of the social assistance system.

Author of the comment: Casandra Cristea, Advocacy National Coordinator, Terre des hommes delegation in Romania