We understood that development is not sustainable if people are excluded from opportunities, services, and the chance for a better life. Aligning with the 2030 Agenda, it is essential for us to ensure a just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world for all beings to live a full and dignified life. Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) address the issue by calling on the international community to reduce inequality within and among countries. One minority group that should also be given serious consideration is the working single mothers community that faces the hidden structural inequality. SDG 10 would be the most appropriate tool in addressing and empowering working single mothers in particular and ensuring inclusiveness and equality for them. Being a single mother is always accompanied by fear, shame, lack dignity, and conflict-all of which impact the overall quality of life. This is further enhance by the fact that the society at large has a predefined concept of what fairness should be. In this context, fairness tends to be narrowly defined as equality without due recognition of human dignity and respect for those whose daily lives continue to be adversely impacted by the societal perception (as well as personal belief) on the individual self-worth based on one’s marital status. Human dignity is one of the fundamental values upheld by UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Assembly, 1948). Dignity, in general means ‘the state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect’, and it is the main reason why someone is considered worthy. Butko et.al. (2017) further describe the personal dignity as awareness by human and society of the fact of having certain moral qualities and reputation parameters. In addition, Bayertz (2012) views dignity as a religious, philosophical, ethical and legislative value, occasionally associated with the ideas of inviolability or sanctity of life, suggesting protection of the sentient life of all the living beings, because they are holy and worthy of life. It should be noted that according to Andorno (2014), the protection of human dignity is correlated with the preservation of human rights and freedoms. Mothers thus, deserve a very important place in this hierarchy of dignity and honour as they are the primary companion, teacher, nurturer, who watch over children, and most importantly, the one that give birth to all humankind hence the reason for the esteem and honour we accord to motherhood. The value of motherhood is upheld in all cultures regardless of time and place. However, face with the circumstances whereby the ideal nuclear family is absent, single-mothers have to face the societal expectations and norms of the community they lived in. This interaction to a great extent influence their sense of dignity as the way the person is treated by others can either support or erode dignity. It is interesting to explore how working single-mothers preserve their identity in their struggle for dignity in a Malay Muslim dominant community in Malaysia. Lets see how I can be meaningful to address this phenomenon.
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