Among the legislature’s plans is a review of the Law on Gender Violence, and also a legal ‘dress’ for domestic violence, until now without that status. Isabel Blanco thus stressed yesterday that the Ministry that she directs, Family and Equal Opportunities, will weather with both measures the binomial of ‘violence’ that has been one of the centers of controversy for months. She justified that she considers a “specific approach” to domestic violence necessary because it will allow “preventing aggressions”, an affirmation that she made based on data of “a growing social problem”. She mentioned, for example, that they had detected an increase in the abuse of adolescent children towards their parents, and also between siblings. However, when referring to gender violence, he added that it was still “the greatest possible inequalities”, so he indicated that the “update” will reinforce the commitment of his team and will emphasize the rural world, with the adoption of the ‘in, on, out’ system, which could be summed up in a strategy of prevention, care and recovery of autonomy.
And it is that the new legislature -with the same incumbent but with different government partners- has become for the autonomous Executive in a point and followed in which to resume unfinished projects, but also with which to underline what is new, with all eyes on how it’s done. Thus, Blanco explained in the Courts that several pending laws are ‘reflected’ – that of Residential Care and that of Support for the Life Project of Persons with Disabilities – and to that they intend to add two new legal texts: the already mentioned on domestic violence and a Law on the Rights of the Elderly.
The latter will seek solutions to ‘ageism’ (age discrimination) and loneliness, within the consolidation of the Dependency Care 5.0 model, which had already begun to structure options for the elderly, both in their own homes and in the residences. It will be given great weight, assured the counselor, given that 25% of the population of Castilla y León is 65 years of age or older, according to her own data.
Blanco once again insisted on an anthropocentric roadmap, which puts “the person at the center”, an idea that he reiterated not only in reference to the elderly, but also in allusion to other life stages. Because if the person is the center of the strategy, the family is positioned as “a basic institution of society and a pillar of the welfare state,” recognized the head, who estimated the amount allocated to resources for them at 50 million, “an expense unprecedented» for this ‘Plan Familias’. In the battery of aid, and echoing what was already declared by the president of the Community, he reviewed measures such as the ‘baby check’, of up to 2,500 euros per child, but also announced a budget increase for the Bono Concilia (whose bases published today) or four million euros for energy subsidies to the most vulnerable households, part of the ‘anti-crisis’ plan. For “specific situations of need” like this, a new tool is released, those baptized as ‘Social Emergency Bonds’.
In addition, in relation to the issues that focus on minors and young people, the slogan is improvement. On the list is adapting the foster program. On the other hand, the competences in the field of youth look to the future. “Today the main problem of young people is employment,” said Blanco, who promised personalized guidance or strengthen Dual Vocational Training. With his own entity, he highlighted the promise to approve the VIII Autonomous Plan on Drugs, which will pay attention to alcohol and marijuana, but also to gambling or video games.
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