opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment and appointment to any office under the state. Besides this, Section of the Factories Act states that creches should be maintained if more than women are employed in an industry or factory. Children below six years should be looked after in these crèches which will be maintained by the industry itself. Many state initiatives were taken to improve the condition of women in employment and in need of employment.
Women’s cells were created in the Ministry of Labour to look at the problems of women workers. The Equal Remuneration Act for equal wages for the same work or work of a similar nature also came into force. A National Plan of Action (NPA) for women was taken up by the Department of Social Welfare to implement the Equal Remuneration Act. A working group on women’s employment was also constituted by the Planning Commission for enhancing the employment opportunities for women belonging to rural areas and to review the labour laws on women’s work and their participation in economic and productive activities.
A steering committee to build the data base on women’s work, particularly in the rural areas, was also formed by the Planning Commission. Over the years there has been a paradigm shift in the ways women’s programmes have been initiated. During the earlier decades the programmes for women were based on the welfare approach, slowly it moved to equality of opportunity and then finally to development approach. It was realised that until women’s development programmes are in full swing benefits cannot be reaped as women are part of human resource.
Although in some sectors women have been achievers, economically and financially they have to march long roads to achieve equal partnership with men. The mindset has to be modern. The attitude and approach have to change to ensure dramatic transformation in the way gender issues related to work are approached in the society. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV): KGBV was initiated as a scheme of Government of India under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).
Currently, it is subsumed