Let Women Contribute By Doing NS In The Community
By Cho Ming En
27 August 2019

National Service (NS) has been an avenue for young men to contribute to Singapore’s defence.

As we push to promote women’s rights in our society, we should also consider the gap between the sexes regarding NS.

Since every citizen enjoys the privileges of citizenship, the responsibility to keep the nation strong and robust should be shared equally. It would thus be prudent to review NS and how women can contribute to Singapore.

Military service is physically demanding and potentially dangerous. It is a tremendous sacrifice for men who spend two of their prime years protecting Singapore while their female peers advance in their education or careers.

Over the years, there have been recurring debates on NS for women. Our founding prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, wrote in his memoir From Third World To First: Singapore Story (1965-2000): “I was keen to have our women do National Service as Israeli women did because that would reinforce the people’s will to defend themselves.”

Still, I feel compulsory military service for women will not be ideal given the physiological differences between the sexes.

As an alternative, I propose that women perform NS through community service for one year. A year is a significant amount of time, but not too long that the programme becomes inefficient and a barrier to women’s professional aspirations.

They could serve in areas such as healthcare, eldercare, environmental conservation and community building.

Singapore relies heavily on foreign workers and is experiencing a labour crunch in the healthcare and eldercare sectors. While most healthcare jobs call for years of professional training, we could explore the possibility of creating positions that require less training, perhaps with highly specific job scopes, such as National Kidney Foundation health assistants or palliative carers.

Singapore’s population is ageing. According to a Lien Foundation study released in July last year, the country will have to augment its pool of long-term-care workers by 45 per cent by 2020 to satisfy its eldercare needs.

It would be apt to tap our youth to take care of our elderly people and keep our eldercare expenditure low.

These community services are integral to a well-functioning society, and this proposal will make the NS system more equitable in the time and effort involved.

Today, national servicemen are often offered higher starting salaries for the same job to acknowledge their contributions to defence. By rolling out NS for women, there will be no need for this difference in treatment. This will help to narrow the persistent wage gap between men and women.

Both men and women are valuable and can contribute in their own ways to society.