Part-time women workers are set to get all the benefits enjoyed by full-time women workers. The Government has indicated that it intends bringing about legislative change in this regard.

Inaugurating the 44th session of the Indian Labour Conference, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said, “We would need to make provision for part-time work (for women) which would have the same characteristics as in full-time employment (for women). If this requires legislative changes, we should be prepared to do so and begin working on a blueprint for making this a reality.”

He believed that women are one of the most under-utilised resources. Female labour force participation rates are extremely low and have remained more or less constant over the past decades.

To bring more women into the workforce, he emphasised on understanding the constraints that they face in balancing their family and work responsibilities. He felt that the provision of crèches built into regulations, including those for MNREGA, were clearly not enough.

Talking about skill development for all workers, his concern was that the process of expanding the skill development infrastructure was progressing slower than expected initially. He asked the private sector to engage itself much more vigorously in these efforts so that the “massive challenge” of training could be overcome.

He also urged industry to finance the skill development of poor students. “Poor students must find it financially viable to learn a skill rather than take up a job prematurely. This requires that industry and the Government should work together to ensure that such students are adequately financed,” he added.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has embarked upon the task of establishing 1,500 New Industrial Training Institutes and 5,000 Skill Development Centres in the country during the next three years. Special emphasis is being given for expanding training infrastructure in the extremism affected districts of our country, he added.

Factories Act

He said that the Factories Act, 1948, a Central legislation to regulate the working conditions in factories, is currently in the process of being amended. The need for amending the Factories Act has been felt because of a number of developments since 1987 when the Act was last amended.

These include concerns arising out of disasters such as the Bhopal gas tragedy, especially those relating to industrial disaster mitigation, rehabilitation and compensation for industrial workers and other affected persons.

>Shishir.s@thehindu.co.in

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