In One-Of-Its-Kind-Experiment, BMC To Train Female House Helps From Lower Income Groups

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is drafting a plan to train house helps, domestic workers and women from lower-income groups To give enhanced opportunities to female workers in the informal professional sector. They will be given a seven-day training in cooking, maintaining hygiene and medical attendant work. At the end of the training, they will get certificates for completing the course. These certificates will be linked to the trainees' Aadhaar cards for prospective employers to check their credentials.

The budget for the scheme will come from the central government under the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Through this project, the BMC wants to focus on giving more economic opportunities to women through gender budgeting – a system to review government programmes from a gender perspective.

Eligibility Standards, Training Map For The Project

The civic body, however, has mandated eligibility standards for the training. As per the criteria, women who would like to avail of the training, should have studied up to at least Class 8, hold yellow or orange ration cards, and their annual income should be less than ₹1 lakh. Moreover, they should be a part of the 18 to 45 years age group.

Besides training the women in cooking and maintaining hygiene, the BMC will also include training for medical attendant work to take care of the elderly. The civic body believes this is a sector where workers are in huge demand. Prashant Sapkale, the assistant commissioner in charge of the planning department, told Hindustan Times, "These women will be trained in assisting the aged, reading prescriptions, giving medication and even calling doctors and emergency numbers. They too will be certified after completing a seven-day training module."

For training the women in cooking, the civic body is considering the Taj group of hotels, with the intention that the women can translate their on-job training into solid formal employment with some credible experience".

Civic Body Considers Taj Group To Train Women

With the help of consultants from the professional services firm Ernst and Young, the civic body is considering the Taj group of hotels to help train women from the lower economic strata. The BMC has even written a letter to the Taj group, requesting the Taj management to meet the additional municipal commissioner and civic team.

"This is a neglected sector but there is a huge demand from working women for domestic workers who can cook. We believe that Mumbaikars would certainly want to hire trained cooks certified by the BMC. This is a one-of-its-kind experiment and if it works, it will be beneficial for both employers and domestic helpers. Our aim is specifically to help improve the living standards of the latter", Sapkale said.

A civic official handling this project said, "We will ask the Taj if it can design a course solely for the BMC through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department. The cooks can even launch a food delivery business from home after completing the Taj training. The BMC will fund it."

If the Taj group of hotels agrees to BMC's proposal, the certificate issued to the women at the end of the training will include Taj's name too, thus adding credibility to their training.

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