On International Women’s Day, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa announced a slew of initiatives to promote and encourage working women and entrepreneurs.
Women employees working in the State government will be given six months child care leave along with maternity leave, which is currently six months.
To provide assistance to urban working women, anganwadis in Bengaluru and other cities will be developed into creches in a phased manner. “Creches will be established in two major government offices in district headquarters for the benefit of employees,” said Mr. Yediyurappa.
He said rules that prohibit women from taking up jobs owing to legal impediments would be re-examined.
A mission for the protection and empowerment of women will be launched under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister. This would facilitate coordination among various departments implementing schemes for the protection and empowerment of women, he said.
Boost to entrepreneurs
The Chief Minister also announced that women entrepreneurs in hospital, wellness and other services can apply for loans up to ₹2 crore at a subsidised rate of 4% through women’s development board or Karnataka State Financial Corporation. Under the State rural livelihood mission, Sanjeevini, rural self-help groups can start 6,000 micro-enterprises in catering, cleanliness work, poultry, sheep rearing, and solid waste sectors through Panchayat Raj institutions. This is expected to help 60,000 women achieve self-employment.
Women entrepreneurs who manufacture papads, pickles, roti, spice mix, and other food products will get assistance when it comes to packaging and branding their products as well as access to online marketing and technical help. As many as 25,000 women are expected to receive this assistance. A policy would be formulated to strengthen self-help groups.
The Budget also promises to provide bus passes at concessional rates to women in the garment industry. This was announced in the last year’s Budget but had not been implemented.
To encourage women working with licence obtained from agricultural produce marketing committee, they will be given 10% reservation in the allotment of site, godown, shop-cum-gowdowns in APMC yard.
7,500 CCTV cameras
As many as 7,500 CCTV cameras will be installed in Bengaluru city through the activation of safe city projects.
Tara Krishnaswamy, a Bengaluru-based activist, said the decision to allocate an additional six months child care leave could even be counterproductive as it would reinforce that taking care of the children was the women’s job.
She said the State government should instead introduce paternity leave so that it would encourage working women to return to work.
