The Editor, Sir:

I applaud the decision of local bauxite/alumina company Alpart, in the absence of national legislation so prescribing, to extend three days of leave to fathers of newborn babies.

This progressive move is something that has long been needed as a national initiative, as our children and society, in general, could benefit much more from greater involvement of men in child rearing. Hopefully, Alpart's move will encourage positive government action in this regard.

Certainly, three days will not be sufficient for men to tend to their children; however, this initiative serves to engender greater responsibility of our men from the very beginning of fatherhood. A move by our public hospitals to allow it to become more normative for fathers to be present in the birthing rooms should be complementary.

The reality of the situation is that too many of our men are missing from too many lives and too many homes. The foundations of our families and our society weaken as a consequence of too many of our men abdicating their parental responsibilities. Thus, any initiative that aims to encourage our men to become more active in raising their children ought to be embraced.

In addition to ensuring the legal proscription of paternity leave, our lawmakers should seek to put other measures in place to encourage more men to step up to the plate and play more meaningful roles in their children's lives.

On any given day, our family courts are cluttered with women seeking court action for their children's fathers to contribute financially to their children. From what we see at our family courts, our system is broken.

The Government should seek to extend incentives such as tax credits to men who support their children. Men who do the right thing must be applauded and encouraged. Those who refuse to support their children must be penalised.

Framework

We must strengthen the framework to enable us to more effectively and efficiently collect from fathers, residing both locally and overseas, who fail to satisfy their parental obligations. A man's wages ought to be garnished and his bank accounts levied, as necessary, to compel his child support. His material possessions, as warranted, should be levied and the proceeds therefrom used to satisfy his financial obligation to his children.

We just cannot continue as a society to allow so many of our innocent children to suffer or be limited in their potentialities because of uncaring and irresponsible fathers. We continue to pay rather dearly for this.

I am, etc.,

KEVIN K.O. SANGSTER

sangstek@msn.com

New Jersey

Via Go-Jamaica