Families are rights holders of the social compact

The NDP 2030 details the fostering of a social compact which at the core is an “agreement among individual people in a society or between the people and their government that outlines the rights and duties of each party while building national solidarity”.

The problem with this kind of contract / compact is that we do not however live as individuals. We live in households, mainly with family. The concerns and needs of our households often extend beyond the four walls to the group of people that is our affiliated unit of function. The question therefore must be “with whom is this social compact built? With individuals, groups, communities?”

The answer might lie in another detail of the NDP 2030; that of active citizenry and leadership towards a social compact that starts not with a president who leads, or with politicians who pass laws that they may or may not understand, or religious leaders who journey to truth via social facts that are truth or distort truth, or with charismatic individuals with dishonest agendas that draw in followers. Active citizenship and leadership at its core has a foundation in our homes, together with a functional unit of family.

It therefore stands to reason that the social compact is between the state and families; not individuals and not the community which is only as strong or weak as the households and constituent members of those households. The social compact must be with families who are there to – according to the goal of the White Paper on Families (2013) to: “Improve the capacities of families and their members to establish social interactions which make a meaningful contribution towards a sense of community, social cohesion and national solidarity”