Tozik offers to arrest parents – “social parasites”

In Belarus it is proposed to arrest parents who do not want to work and cover expenses for child maintenance.

There is a necessity to amend the Decree #18 “On additional measures for state protection of children in problem families.”

Such a statement has been made today by Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Tozik at the field session of the National commission on children’s rights and the standing commission of the “chamber of representatives” on human rights, national relations and mass media, БелТА informs.

“Every year we have to take away 2,500-3,000 children from their parents. It happens that many parents start “to play” with the state now. On cooperation with the Interior Affairs Ministry we have to persuade them to find job, to accompany them there. Then the boss has to take great pains and have problems with them, not knowing what to do with them. There is a proposal: if a person is absent from work two-three times a month, he or she should be put under administrative arrest, and work there,” Anatoly Tozik said.

The deputy Prime Minister stressed that the path of stiffening penalties should be chosen. “After all our efforts we manage to cover only about 65% of the resources spent by the state on support of dysfunctional families in special facilities. And who counted how much is spent by the country for implementing the decree? So the decree should be amended and additions should be made to it, proceeding from the practice of its implementation for the period of 8 years,” he believes.

In her turn, Deputy Minister of Justice of Belarus Alla Bodak reminded that the main objectives of the decree were improvement of situation of children in problem families and surcharging expenses for keeping children in special institutions from their parents.

“When the document was adopted, the scenery of surcharging money changed. Thus, as of January 2007, Br 4.3 bn were collected, which was only 14% of the sum subject to collection. By November 1, 2014 Br 196.3 bn were collected, which is 67.3% of the sum,” Alla Bordak explained.

The deputy minister noted that a number of proposals have been considered and looked into. “The main thing is that no one should have any indulgences. For instance, there is a proposal to bring to account responsible persons, who try to evade covering expenses for support of children, who had been supported by the state, and who have come of legal age,” she added.