Launch Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme, Dr Jean Drèze tells Govt

KOZHIKODE:
Noted development economist Dr Jean Drèze today strongly advocated for an urban employment guarantee scheme as part of the efforts to address the twin problems of poverty, particularly during exigencies like the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and gender inequality through government’s programmes and policies.

Making the suggestion at a three-day International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE II 2021), organized by the Gender Park under Kerala government’s Department of Women and Child Development in association with UN Women, Dr Drèze said the scheme, which he called as Decentralized Urban Employment and Training (DUET), could be utilized for keeping public places like educational institutions, hospitals and bus and railway stations clean by taking the services of jobless people in cities and towns.

Kudumbashree Mission Executive Director Harikishore, chaired the session ‘Gender Equity in Innovation & Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes: Role of Government and Related Institutions’ in which the other panelists were IT Secretary K Mohammed Y Safirulla, Department of Women and Child Development Director T V Anupama, and Odisha’s Commercial Tax Officer Aishwarya Rituparna Pradhan. The three-day conference commenced on Thursday at the Gender Park Campus in Kozhikode, abiding by the COVID-19 safety protocol.

At least one third of such jobs under DUET could be offered to women, Dr Drèze said and explained that under the scheme the government should issue job stamps to the employers instead of providing funds in cash in order to eliminate corruption in the form of ghost employees. Such employment should be offered only to those enrolled with workers’ cooperatives to be launched under the scheme. He appealed to the Kerala government to try out the suggestion through a pilot project before scaling it up.

He also suggested putting in place an enabling policy and regulatory framework and infrastructure for carrying out of non-profit activities in a smooth manner.

Pradhan, a trans gender officer, said her experience showed that a change in the social mindset was crucial for ensuring gender parity through implementation of laws and government’s policies and programmes.

Anupama called for sensitization of every single service provider on the importance of gender equity. Women should be facilitated to come out of their stereotype roles assigned to them and “discover new space” in automobile engineering and other technical areas considered as the exclusive preserve of men, she pleaded.

Safirulla listed the achievements of his IT department in promoting women to become entrepreneurs. He suggested helping women achieve work-life balance by providing offices near their homes, formation of women networks, and provision of incentives for new ventures by women. All this would go a long way in removing gender inequality, he explained.

Summing up the session, Harikishore said creation of opportunities, putting in place a comprehensive eco-system to support enterprises run by women and framing of policies and programmes for women were the key to addressing the problems confronting all the stakeholders.