SYARIAH COURT

SYARIAH COURT:

(Provision of counselling and mediation services to divorcing couples): 2.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports in view of the 80% increase in Muslim divorce cases in 2006 compared to a decade ago, whether the Syariah Court has enough resources to cope and to provide counselling and mediation services to divorcing couples.

The Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs (Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Syariah Court has been able to cope with the increase in divorce cases among Muslim couples by tapping on counselling expertise outside the Court. For example, it has been forging collaborations with the Family Service Centres and voluntary welfare organisations to provide counselling services to Muslim couples with marital difficulties. To date, 14 partner agencies have come on board and, as at December 2006, 58% or about 1,880 cases have been referred to the partner agencies.

The Syariah Court has also taken steps to build up a pool of ad hoc mediators who will complement the full-

Column: 1686

time mediators in the Syariah Court. Currently, there are four ad hoc mediators, and this arrangement gives the Court the flexibility to tap on its ad hoc mediators pool when case loads are high.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): Sir, there is a shortage of trained counsellors. Therefore, I would like to ask the Minister what measures are being taken in order to increase the number of counsellors. Secondly, what other measures are being taken in order to help strengthen Muslim families?

Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, at the moment, given the case load, the number of counsellors that we have seems to be adequate, but not forgetting that we also work with partners outside the Syariah Court. We have 14 agencies and they have been very helpful to allow us to send some of the cases to them to be dealt with.

There are, of course, other measures to strengthen Muslim marriages in Singapore. There is a whole host of programmes that we have started. With respect to, for example, minor couples, I think Mdm Halimah is aware that we have just started two centres to guide minor couples. Minor couples are defined as brides who are between the age of 18 and 20, because they are more vulnerable to divorces. At the same time, we have also started programmes through the VWOs, which are PPIS and AMP, to help couples who want to remarry again after they have divorced, to see how during the process of remarrying they can continue to strengthen their marriages. But, meanwhile, the key pillar in strengthening our Muslim marriages in Singapore is, of course, through marriage preparation courses that we have been conducting for many years. These courses are now being reviewed to ensure that they remain relevant. But after all that has been said and done, at the end of the day, it is up to the couples themselves to make their

Column: 1687

marriage work. We will provide the support possible within the framework of what is available in terms of resources within the community.