The number of solo parent households living below the poverty line is increasing in the Czech Republic. The increase is due to the covid crisis and subsequent high inflation. While 32.4% of solo parent households were below the income poverty line in 2021, last year the figure was 36.3%. The vast majority are single mothers facing complex dilemmas. On the one hand, they have to provide economically for their children, on the other hand, they are trying to be good and responsible mothers. In the days of the covid, they were mostly helped by NGOs replacing the role of the welfare state, which often failed. This is the result of research by Radka Dudová from the National Institute SYRI and the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences. The research also highlights the naivety of the idea that people are independent and self-sufficient beings (not only in times of crisis) and shows that true humanity lies in interdependence and caring for others.
Although we live in prosperity as a whole, there are still people among us who do not have enough food. Single mothers and their children, who make up about a quarter of all households, are a case in point. In 2021, 32.4% of single-parent households were below the income poverty line, which is well above the average for the entire population (8.6%) and generally above families with children (9.2%). Last year, 36.3% of single-parent families lived below the poverty line, compared to 9.5% of the total population and 12% of all families with children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a SYRI researcher monitored a group of 32 single mothers with young children and conducted repeated in-depth interviews with them. She investigated how they were living and how they were coping with the difficulties associated with school closures and anti-pandemic measures. One of the topics that repeatedly came up in the interviews was, surprisingly, a lack of food.
"The cause was usually the mothers' poor economic situation. Many did not have a stable income because they were unable to find work after parental leave, while others lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Their jobs were eliminated, or they had to stay home and care for their children. Added to this was the closure of school cafeterias, which normally provide children with at least one relatively inexpensive and nutritious meal a day," said Dudová.