Rs800m allocated for women development dept

Lahore: The Punjab government has allocated Rs800million for Women Development Department for the financial year 2019-20.

As many as Rs970 million will be spent on new schemes while Rs28.390 will be spent on the ongoing projects. The department will carry out eight new schemes at a cost of Rs 970million. An amount of Rs200million has been allocated to purchase land for the establishment of Women Development Complex. An amount of Rs100 million will be spent on an awareness campaign regarding the initiative of women empowerment package phase-III. The government has allocated Rs50 million for the capacity building of the staff of the working women hostels. As many as Rs50 million will be spent on capacity building of daycare centers’ staff, Rs70m on provision of missing facilities at working women’s hostels and Rs300m on financial inclusion of rural women. An amount of Rs 100m has been allocated for provision of funds to Punjab Daycare Fund (PDCF) society and 100m for gender mainstreaming programme.

The vision of the provincial government that women and men enjoy equality in all walks of life; women and girls are able to play their roles in achieving and enjoying individual and collective wellbeing, development and prosperity without any explicit or implicit discrimination.

The Punjab government aims to ensure women-related constitutional, family and legal rights to women. The government’s objective is to ensure women’s political empowerment and participation in decision making.

Labour: The Punjab Labour and Human Resource Department Friday was allocated Rs300 million for the annual budget 2019-20. A sum of Rs185.525 million will be spent on on-going schemes while Rs114.987 million will be spent on new schemes. Under new schemes, Rs20 million allocated for the Business Re-engineering & Strengthening of Labour Inspectorate, Rs24 million for construction of office of building directorate Labour Welfare Rawalpindi, Rs30 million for construction of office of building directorate Labour Welfare (South) Lahore and Rs40 million allocated for construction of office of building directorate labour welfare Bahawalpur.

Targets of the government for the fiscal year 2019-20 is elimination of bonded labour in four districts of Punjab, including Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Gujrat and Sargodha. Objective of the Punjab government is to protect labour rights and secure working environment for all workers. Effective measure will be taken to eradicate forced labour and elimination of worst form of child labour. Labour welfare laws will be enforced in factories, and shops etc.

The government’s policy is to ensure equal remuneration of for equal value work without any gender discrimination.