Wanita Gerakan has reiterated its call to the government to set up a Women’s Provident Fund to help abandoned families of all races.

Wanita Gerakan secretary-general Jayanthi Devi Balaguru said the fund could be managed by the EPF Department itself or as an independent body, solely to help abandoned families of all Malaysians.

She said the establishment of this fund would deter and hopefully reduce maintenance by defaulters and divorce rates in the long run.

“Women with broken marriages of all races suffer the same fate, and hence assistance should be rendered to all Malaysian women across the board,” she said in a statement.

Jayanthi pointed out that at the Wanita National Delegate Conference in 2005, Gerakan Wanita had resolved that ‘upon marriage the husband makes a compulsory contribution of a certain percentage of his earnings to the Women’s Provident Fund. This fund could be managed by the EPF Department itself or by an independent body.

“We have proposed that only the wife can make withdrawals from this fund in situations, for example, when the marriage breaks down, the husband dies or the husband abandons the family.

“The husband is to continue paying the contribution even after the maintenance order which will take this contribution into account. The contribution shall cease upon the last child reaching the age of 18 years old and or upon the husband reaching retirement age. If the marriage is a successful one then upon retirement the monies can be withdrawn for the benefit of the family’s enjoyment,’ Jayanthi said.

‘The benefit derived from this type of fund is that there will be no additional costs to the government. The body that takes on this fund shall invest the fund and dividends and profits are to be added to the fund,” she added.

On Monday, the Syariah Judiciary Department gave out RM200,000 in alimony advance to 70 divorcees and children whose ex-spouses or fathers failed to provide maintenance or complied with the Syariah Court’s order.

The amount is part of a RM15 million allocation approved by the Cabinet in January this year for advance payments to women awaiting the Syariah Court’s decision on the amount of alimony.