The Assembly’s committee on women empowerment (CWE) found that only 33 per cent of the population had enrolled for Aadhaar in Meghalaya and asked the state government to ensure that the rights of women to avail benefits from various schemes should not be deprived in absence of Aadhaar enrolment.
Taking stock of the problems being faced by women in the state, the CWE chaired by Congress MLA from East Shillong, Ampareen Lyngdoh, convened a meeting with the officers of state government and discussed the issues related to Aadhaar enrolment as well as problems being faced by labourers in the state.
Lyngdoh said that during the meeting, the committee highlighted problems being faced by women including those who are the head of the family in the ration card in view of the mandatory Aadhaar enrolment in order to avail the benefits from various government schemes.
“We were informed that as in July this year, only 33 per cent of the state’s population had enrolled for Aadhaar,” Lyngdoh said, adding that the officers have assured that the enrolment would improve because an additional 537 kits are available for Aadhaar enrolment.
She also informed that the committee discussed employment problems being faced by the youth including returnees from various parts of the state who have lost their jobs due to the current pandemic situation.
Lyngdoh informed that the committee also sought a clarification from officers of the labour department on delay to release the money to around 43,000 daily wage earners who have not received the benefit from the labour department under the Chief Minister’s Relief Against Wage Loss Scheme (CRAWL), which is meant for extending financial assistance to daily wage and other workers who suffered economic loss due to the pandemic, in order to provide relief to wage earners/labourers/petty traders during the lockdown period.
The committee also asked the state government to speed up the registration of construction workers under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996 as the number of workers who have registered is very low.
“We took up the issue related to labourers because it affected the livelihood of women if men who are the main supporters of many families do not get the financial assistance as has been assured by the government to spend Rs 26 crore,” Lyngdoh said.
The MLA also said that upgrading existing ITIs like Nongstoiñ and Nongpoh and setting of ITI at Ampati and Mawkyrwat besides introduction of women centric trades were discussed and asked the government to speed up the matter.
