This week our hearts plunged with deep sorrow feeling the anguish of single father Adrian Anthony Laing, whose home was destroyed by fire. Three of his young sons — nine-year-old Adrianno Laing and seven-year-old twin siblings Jorden and Jayden Laing — perished while his 13-year-old daughter remains in the hospital, severely burned.

Just one week before, Laing, a disc jockey, posted that he had purchased all his children’s necessary school books and uniforms for the new school term.

As we listened to him recount the events leading up to this unthinkable tragedy, we recognised that the circumstances were not unfamiliar to most of us living in Jamaica. There was a power outage; he lit a candle and went out to conduct business.

Laing is no deadbeat dad; he raised and took full responsibility for his four children alone. But what happens to someone who has no one to oversee his/her child or children and must go to work? What happens if there is no relative to assist or funds to afford a babysitter to watch and care for the child or children?

Childcare in Jamaica occupies my mind constantly, especially on the mornings when I observe little four- and five-year-olds walking alone to school. More often than not I agonise over who helps the ‘helpers’ children when she is helping someone else’s, or how perplexing it is for a parent who has a child with a disability in Jamaica. Yet many of the ‘haves’ fail to empathise with the hellish daily realities of ‘the have-nots’ who are at the margins of our society.

In Jamaica, single-parent households account for approximately 41 per cent of Jamaican families (Cambridge University Press 2018). Most of these households are headed by women who are low-income earners and, therefore, need additional help to care for their children and afford childcare services.

While Jamaica has made some progress for children living in State children’s homes, we have done little to create systems to publicly provide and regulate childcare for low-income families and single parents. More often than not this gap stifles the progression of women financially and academically. If they don’t have good neighbours, friends, deep pockets, or relatives to help them take care of their child or children it is difficult for them to go out to work or attend school to upskill themselves.

The cost of childcare has been a shackle for too many of our people. As a result, most single parents are forced into entrepreneurship in Jamaica — a choice they make to have flexible working hours to balance their lives for their children. As a Member of the Parliament, I see many men and women weekly who request assistance in buying chickens, seeds, and fertiliser or items to hustle and sell. One hundred per cent of them who come to see me do not work and need income to help feed and send their children to school.

Children must not be burdens regardless of the “a who tell you fi go have them?” opinion expressed by those who may not understand the impact of poverty on someone’s life. Sadly, too many children live as “regrets” and “burdens” to their mothers or fathers who have no options.

The novel coronavirus pandemic made these realities more complex by challenging children’s education, care, and well-being as parents struggled to balance their responsibilities for childcare and employment, with a disproportionate burden placed on our women. Two months after the pandemic began in Jamaica, 62 per cent of households reported earnings below the minimum wage. Again, low-income families and women were the most brutally hit, with 59 per cent and 53 per cent of them losing employment.

For households that relied on savings, 50 per cent said their savings could only last for two weeks, 30 per cent said that it could only last one week, and 18 per cent for one day. As a consequence, then and now, with the high cost of living, many children experienced and continue to face daily food shortages. Some 47 per cent of them reside in rural areas (Caribbean Policy Research Institute, March 2021).

Countries that succeed subsidise childcare

Childcare should provide love, protection, stimulation, healthy food, and enable children to develop socially, emotionally, and cognitively.

“When a baby arrives in the world there is no reason it should be just the mother who takes care of it. It is important to have greater equality in sharing responsibilities. From July, paid paternity leave in France will increase from 14 to 28 days. The first week will now be mandatory, with three days funded by the father’s employer and the rest by the State. It is expected to cost taxpayers €500m ($593m) a year.” (Emmanuel Macron, President of France 2020)

In France, parents of babies and toddlers may receive tax credits of up to 85 per cent of the cost of attending child crèches or hiring home-based “childminders” before preschool begins.

Wealthy countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development spend an average of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on toddlers, mainly through heavily subsidised childcare. Denmark, for example, spends US$23,140 annually per child on care for children two years or younger. For instance, all 2-year-olds in Denmark attend childcare during the day, where their parents pay no more than 25 per cent of the cost. This system is guaranteed to the child until the children are in after-school care by 10. If their parents choose to stay home or hire a nanny, the Government will also subsidise that cost. (Claire Caine Miller, October 2021)

In 2021 a UNICEF report ranked 41 high-income countries according to the amount of leave offered to new parents, the ease of access to education in early childhood, the quality of teaching, and the affordability of childcare. It concluded that, in these countries, childcare policies played a crucial role in the development of children and work-life balance for adults. There were no countries from the Caribbean on the list.

The report presented nine recommendations to countries for how policies can be improved to provide comprehensive policy solutions to all families (UNICEF, Gromada & Richardson June2020). The recommendations spoke mainly to making accessible, flexible, and affordable quality childcare available to all parents in the workplace and included publicly provided and regulated childcare for low-income families.

Other data suggest that childcare has significantly impacted women’s participation in the labour force over policies such as paid parental leave. For example, studies have revealed that subsidised childcare and preschool increase the chance that mothers keep working, particularly low-income women in the United States.

Having a child and being single should not prevent your fortunes from leading a successful life or giving your child one. Affluent Jamaican families can afford high-quality care, reducing achievement gaps as early as pre-kindergarten.

Jamaica is not a wealthy country, but if we say we are a progressive country, then let us critically evaluate how we have taken care of our children and supported parenting. It is time to re-evaluate our budgets and provide incentives to corporate Jamaica to help low-income families balance working, going to school, and caring for their children.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member