Thozhi, a collective for women workers in the unorganised sector, has appealed to the Government to direct employers to provide a day’s paid leave for women workers following vaccination, in view of the potential side-effects.
In a representation to the government, the collective highlighted the difficult conditions in which women work in spinning and garment shop floors, tanneries, shoe factories, cashew plantations, rice mills and silver metal workshops.
According to M. Shankar, State convenor of Thozhi, the women work outside the ambit of the government’s welfare schemes and without basic worker securities.
Even amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of women workers are reluctant to get vaccinated, fearing not only the side-effects listed by the government such as body ache, fever and headache, but also the resultant loss of a wage day.
The government should, therefore, urge employers to provide a day’s paid leave to women workers post-vaccination, Thozhi has said.
