Union minister Smriti Irani (File photo)

NEW DELHI: In order to push the "care economy" and enhance employment for women, the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship ( MSDE ) is planning to soon initiate a study on state-wide availability and requirement of skilling in geriatric care, early childhood education and domestic work.

The possibility of carrying out a study and also setting up a web portal with a database of certified skilled persons and their potential employers in the care sector was discussed at a meeting steered by the ministry of women and child development last month. Last week the government’s plans to strengthen skill development and entrepreneurship was shared at the meeting of the consultative committee of Parliament attached to the WCD ministry.

At a meeting chaired by WCD minister Smriti Irani on February 17, all stakeholders include MSDE representatives dwelt on ways to give an impetus to “care economy”. It was also decided that MSDE may prepare a web portal having data base of certified skilled persons and their potential employers in the care sector. This portal would be linked to financial institutions and job sites like naukri.com and government employment exchanges.

It is learnt from sources, that the National Skill Development Corporation has been asked to work on preparing a module for training of anganwadi workers in emergency health care and also for their certification in early childhood care. The WCD ministry also opened up the possibility of allowing anganwadi centres to be used as training centres after their working hours provided that the training agency refurnishes them and also carries out training without any damage to the anganwadi centre and without impacting anganwadi services.

At last week’s parliamentary consultative committee, government data was shared to point out that 65% of India’s population is in working age group and the average age of the population is 29 years. However, women’s participation in the labour force is at a worrisome low of 17.5% . Hence the need to focus on creating work opportunities for women. In fact as per a Mckinsey report, if women get equal opportunities, there can be an addition of $770 billion (>18%) to GDP by 2025.

Meanwhile, data available with the Skill India Mission shows that there has been a 97% increase in admissions of women in Industrial Training institutes (ITIs) in 2019 as compared to 2014. Number of women trainees increased from 87,799 to 1,73,105. According to officials, it is proposed to carry out a gender study to determine constraints for women in participating in the ITI and apprenticeship training and their transition into the labour market.

Data also shows that around 40% of the 73 lakh candidates trained under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (2016-20) are women. Meanwhile, there is also growing focus on encouraging women to take on new age job roles in Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, data analytics and also in skills like welding and automobile mechanics.

