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08/12/20 13:29 PM IST

Duet For Urban Women

Context
  • There is a crisis of employment in the urban informal sector, as millions of workers have lost their job due to periodic lockdowns, and may or may not retrieve it soon.
  • As public institutions reopen after months of lockdown, much work will be needed to restore the premises (cleaning, sanitizing, white-washing, weeding, repairing, painting,
    plumbing, etc).
  • There is growing interest in an employment guarantee act, but little experience of relief works in urban areas. DUET could act as a step towards urban employment guarantee. 
Decentralised Urban Employment and Training
  • The state government issues “job stamps” and distributes them to approved institutions –schools, colleges, government departments, health centres, municipalities, neighbourhoodassociations, ULBs, etc. Initially, the approved institutions will be public institutions (private non-profit institutions could be considered later).
  • Each job stamp can be converted into one person-day of work within a specified period, with the approved institution arranging the work and the government paying the wages (statutory minimum) directly to the worker’s account on presentation of job stamps with a due-form work certificate from the employer.
Giving priority to women
  • It would give them some economic independence and bargaining power within the family, and help them to acquire new skills.
  • It would reinforce the self-targeting feature of DUET, because women in relatively well-off households are unlikely to go (or be allowed to go) for casual labour at the minimum wage.
  • It would promote women’s general participation in the labour force.
Way forward
  • To avoid abuse, the use of job stamps could be restricted to a list of permissible works. But the list should be fairly comprehensive, and not restricted to maintenance.
  • The scheme would cover both skilled and unskilled workers. Whenever a skilled worker is employed, an assistant (unskilled) worker could be mandatorily employed as well, to impart an element of training and skill formation in the scheme.
Source: The Hindu

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