CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
4.5 Influence of Child Support Grant
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that there should be no double standards in raising boys and girls, the rules that apply to girls should also be applied to boys especially in a household setting.
“What I can say is that I am not sure whether it is the role of the government or the role of parents, but I think the government has to employ or send people who will advise boys about teenage pregnancy because they are the ones who make girls pregnant but in our society the focus is on girls only. The girls are often blamed for the high rates of pregnancies yet they do not impregnate themselves. There should be no double standards in the raising of both and boys and girls. Rules and regulations enforced by parents should be applicable to both genders” (P 13).
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respond if someone said they were having children in order to access the grant, they replied that it was not true because they did not get children on purpose and said that for them it was a mistake.
One of the participants claimed that other young women were having children on purpose;
she argued that they became pregnant on purpose because they knew that the government was there to support them with the grant. She further argued that some knew how to prevent pregnancy but they ignored using protection because they knew that even if they got pregnant they would get government support.
“Many young women do have children on purpose. Others know about preventative measures but still they will continue having sex without using a condom, knowing that if they get pregnant government will support the child” (P 5).
But when she was asked how she would respond if someone said she got the child because she wanted to access the grant, she said that she would disagree with that because she did not plan her pregnancy. Given participants’ responses in the research study, it appears that there is a general misconception that the CSG has been misused by young mothers who deliberately bear children in order to access this social grant. The CSG was introduced to help poor children.
In most cases young females become mothers in the absence of financial support; therefore the possibilities are very high that they will access the grant in order to support their children.
Young mothers do not bear children because they want obtain access to the CSG. Hence according to the participants’ responses they are not having children because they know that they are entitled to the grant.
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“I can disagree, because I did not get a child in order to access the grant, I did not plan for my child. Sometimes you can find that you did not plan to have a child but surprisingly you can find yourself being pregnant even though you have tried to prevent it” (P 5).
Another participant made the similar argument that young women were having children because they wanted to access the grant; she believed that due to high unemployment rates some young women use the grant as their source of income.
“Some people weigh the options and say they are not working but they can earn money for nothing, then they will go and get pregnant so that they can access the grant” (P 7).
4.5.2 The relationship between child support grant and childbearing
Studies have been conducted in South Africa to explore whether there is a relationship between the CSG and child bearing, but no relationship was found between the two (Naong, 2011, Makiwane, 2010 and Makiwane et al., 2006). During interviews almost half of the participants argued that they did not believe that young people had children because they wanted the CSG, but they stated other reasons that might be the cause of the pregnancy.
One of the participants argued that teenage pregnancy was not a new phenomenon, as even before the introduction of the CSG teenage pregnancy was very high. She further argued that the CSG did not create dependency because even before people had children they always found ways to support themselves such as finding temporary jobs. Makiwane et al., (2006) confirm the above finding when they write that youth fertility rate has occurred across the board including those societies who do not qualify for the CSG means test.
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“I would just say people have children because they want to, I do not think they have children because they want to access the CSG, there was no CSG before but people were still having children, they had some ways to support themselves for example others had temporary jobs in order to support their children” (P 1).
Unplanned pregnancies
Other participants argue that many teenage pregnancies were unplanned. They also argue that for them to have children was a mistake because they did not plan their pregnancy with the intention of accessing the grant. This is a common behaviour among teenagers because they usually engage in sexual activities out of curiosity or through peer pressure; however pregnancy was never planned. This statement is confirmed in a study in KwaZulu-Natal by Manzini (2001) which found that teenagers are likely to engage themselves in sexual activities that are unprotected and uninformed.
“Others get children by mistake and not because they want to access the grant, that’s what I think” (P 6).
“That is not true, for me the time I was having sex I was not prepared to become pregnant. I was not aware that what I did that day can make me fall pregnant. Some of us do not make sex because we want to fall pregnant” (P 9).
Some participants argued that they did not believe that some people deliberately had children because they wanted the grant. One of the participants argued that the CSG was not enough to spend due to high food prices and child expenses. She mentioned that for her the money was not enough to spend; she mentioned that as she stays outside the town transport was
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expensive at about R50 a return trip. Therefore she would be left with R260 and with that amount she could only buy pampers or napkins for her child that was why she failed to understand those who said that there are people who had children just because they wanted to access the grant.
“I do not agree with that because I can’t say I have a child because I wanted to access that R310 grant. Especially for me, I am staying far from the town, I have to pay R50 for transport to go town. That means I will be left with R260 and with that R260 I can only buy pampers or just napkins just for one month. After that I will be left with nothing. Therefore I do not think that someone can have a child because she wants to access the CSG” (P 13).