Tamil Nadu Allocates Rs 100 Crores To Implement Urban Employment Scheme

The scheme is aimed at providing livelihood and social security by increasing job opportunities and through the creation and maintenance of public assets

TN Urban Employment Scheme

Chennai: With the onset of pandemic and back-to-back lockdowns, millions of people were rendered jobless (skilled & unskilled), lost savings, and experienced a financial crisis.

To address this issue and as an attempt to fill the void the pandemic has left on workforces in Tamil Nadu, the government spearheaded an urban employment scheme and has issued orders to implement the scheme on a pilot basis.

The scheme is aimed at providing livelihood and social security by increasing job opportunities and through the creation and maintenance of public assets. The scheme would be implemented in two zones in Greater Chennai Corporation for the year 2021-22.

An initial allocation of Rs 100 crore has been allotted for the scheme for the year 2021-22. The employment scheme is based on the recommendations made by a committee led by former Reserve Bank of India Governor C Rangarajan.

The order states that as per the Urban employment scheme, 50 per cent of the total person-days under the scheme would be earmarked for women. Women and men would be paid the same wages for the same unskilled and semiskilled work.

According to an International Labour Organisation policy brief in July 2021, women employed globally in the current scenario are 13 million less than in 2019 while the number of employed men is expected to be the same as in 2019. Indian urban women account for 3 per cent of total employment but in the first wave alone 39 per cent of them experienced job loss.

According to another report in IndiaSpend, only 15 per cent of women employed in India in 2019 could hold to their job as of July 2021.

(With inputs from IANS)