The Centre on Tuesday asked employers to ensure digital payment of wages and paid maternity leave of 26 weeks to women construction workers.
These two were among the slew of measures which were part of advisories issued by the Ministries of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), and Housing and Urban Affairs to agencies under them to encourage their participation in the workforce.
For more than two children and for adoption or commissioning mothers, 12 weeks of paid maternity leave shall be provided by the employer. In addition to childbirth, the advisories addressed miscarriages, stipulating that if a woman in the construction sector experiences a miscarriage, she is entitled to leave with wages equivalent to maternity benefits for six weeks following the day of the miscarriage.
The advisory issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said, “For ensuring wide participation of women and providing gender equal opportunities in the highway sector, MoRTH has decided to issue an Advisory in line with the Statutory Provisions to all implementing agencies, which in turn, shall ensure and oversee the adoption of the Advisory by their respective contractors/concessionaires”.
For migrant women workers, it asked that all employers in the highways sector should ensure facilities such as latrines and urinals, washing, crèches, and adequate accommodation are made available as per the provisions of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act and Rules.
The advisory also emphasised the proactive role of employers in implementing policies and programmes to encourage women to join the workforce.
Similar provisions were mentioned in the advisory issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
“The advisory that I hold in my hands for female construction workers across the country mandates them to be given 26 weeks of maternity leave by their employers. Now, this is nothing less than revolutionary. Not just putting ink to paper, but ensuring officers actively consider the availability of such facilities to women,” Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said.
“Now that the advisory is given, it becomes easy for the officers and the Ministry to compute the impact of such advisories to the female construction workforce across the country,” she said.
Ms. Irani also said that the government has asked Central universities to explore establishing working women’s hostels on campuses with government support.
“We have proposed in a combination - between the (Union) Ministry of Labour and the Women and Child Development Ministry - to our counterparts in the Ministry of Education that our Central universities can get additional support from the Ministry so they can now build hostels only for working women within the university environment,” she said adding that several Central universities have already submitted their proposals in writing.
She was speaking at a joint event organised by the Women and Child Development Ministry and the Labour Ministry named ‘Women in workforce for Viksit Bharat’.
A detailed advisory for employers by the Union Labour Ministry to increased overall participation of women in workforce was also released at the event.
