Fuziah Salleh (PH-Kuantan) said she was excited over the budget when finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz announced the various measures for women last week. However, she was left disappointed after looking through the details.

She said the budget did not include long-term solutions for the issues women struggle with in the post-Covid-19 phase, adding that they had been affected whether economically or in terms of domestic violence.

“A single mother who earns less than RM2,500 and has three children can receive RM2,500 in handouts. But this is only about RM208 a month.

“What are the ministry’s long-term measures to lift them out from poverty? This is not made clear in the budget,” she said in debating the 2022 Supply Bill in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Fuziah urged the ministry to establish one specific database on single parents in the B40 group to ensure those in need would get access to aid, citing how she was forced to go through the e-Kasih system, zakat centres, welfare department and schools to get information on these families in her own constituency.

On the monthly handout of basic sanitary kits to 130,000 female teenagers from the B40 group, the Wanita PKR chief urged Putrajaya to give washable sanitary towels instead of disposable sanitary pads.

She said this was more environmentally friendly and financially sustainable.