Karnataka govt’s gift on Women’s Day: Six-months child care leave for employees

Team Udayavani, Mar 8, 2021, 2:52 PM IST

Bengaluru: On international women’s day, Chief Minister B S Yediyurapps on Monday announced a proposal to provide six-months child care leave to women employees of the Government.

He also announced a grant of Rs 37,188 crore for women oriented programmes.

Presenting the 2021-22 budget in the Legislative Assembly, he proposed upgradation of Anganwadis situated in Bengaluru and other cities into creches for the benefit of urban working women.

Action would be taken to open creches in two major government offices in each district centre, the Chief Minister said, announcing a slew of initiatives benefiting women.

“Women employees of the state government will be given a total of six months child care leave along with maternity leave which is already in existence. This will be a supplementary step towards the welfare of women who are a very important part of the administrative machinery,” he said.

Yediyurappa announced loan facility of up to Rs two crore at a subsidised rate of four per cent through Woman Development Board/Karnataka State Finance Corporation to women entrepreneurs in the service sector.

The government also announced support through Panchayat Raj institutions for the establishment of 6,000 micro enterprises for rural women self-help groups under ”Sanjeevini”; to benefit 60,000 women.

Technical support to small enterprises of women was announced by the government which also proposed encouragement to 25,000 women through 2,260 micro enterprises.

The government also proposed to provide market to the products manufactured by women self-help groups and women entrepreneurs, organisation of annual fares at divisional level and implementation of e-market facility.

Yediyurappa announced commencement of ”Vanitha Sangathi” programme for providing BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus pass at concessional rate to women labourers of garment sector in Bengaluru at an expenditure of Rs 30 crore.

It also proposed re-examination of various laws and rules for creation of conducive environment for women taking up employment.

Action was also proposed to incorporate gender budget and child budget in the Panchayat Raj system.

Yediyurappa also announced fixing of 7,500 cameras in public places of Bengaluru city under safe city project; action to intensify night beats through technology based e- beat system.

It also proposed establishment of centre of excellence in collaboration with NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) and National Law School for giving assistance and guidance to women subjected to atrocity.

For the women who have obtained licence from Agricultural Produce Market Committee, 10 per cent reservation was proposed in the allotment of site, godown, shop, shop-cum-godowns in the premises.

The government proposed to support women entrepreneurs by implementation of the ”Elevate Women Entrepreneurship” programme at an expenditure of Rs five crore.

Implementation of a self-help group policy to strengthen self-help groups and their federation of the State was also announced along with action to bring all the self-help groups under the livelihood mission.

Commencement of ”Women Protection and Empowerment Mission” was proposed under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister.