ABSTRACT

We have summarised, in Chapter 5, the proposals of the committees of 1941 and 1958 for widows' and orphans' benefits. The earlier of these committees ignored the question of family allowances. The Ministerial Committee stated that it had deliberately limited the basic benefits for children and avoided recommending family allowances, maternity benefits, or extension of children's benefits beyond the age of 14 years. The Committee adopted this attitude "mainly because the demographic tendency in Mauritius is such that any attempt at the present time to introduce such measures would involve such vast expense it could not be contemplated without bringing literal ruin to the island by the diversion of economic resources to consumer expenditure rather than to development expenditure" .