KUALA LUMPUR: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is mulling a proposal to have wives own a low-cost house for security.

Its minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said the regulation, which has been implemented in Commonwealth countries like India and Pakistan, could also be implemented in Malaysia.

“This is a fantastic idea whereby low-cost housing should actually be in the wife’s name due to so many social reasons. Sometimes the wife is left alone to care for the children,” she said.

Ng said for one the move could prevent husbands who are compulsive gamblers from mortgaging the house for gambling funds.

She said her ministry would discuss with the Housing and Local Government Ministry into the possibility of implementing the system here.

Ng was speaking to reporters after attending the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Workshop with the theme ‘Mechanisms to Ensure Adequate Recognition of Women’s Issues in Budgetary Processes’ here yesterday.

The workshop was held in conjunction with the 54th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference (CPA) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).

Ng said the policy had been implemented in India since 2005 under the National Renewal Urban Mission and later by Pakistan, which made it mandatory for poor women in the country to own a house.

India’s Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja said about 1.5 million low-cost houses had been allocated for poor women until 2012.

Pakistan’s National Assembly member Kashmala Tariq said the policy would not only protect women’s rights but also uphold their role in society.

Tariq, who is also CWP chairperson, said Pakistan had allocated some five million houses for poor women.

— Bernama