After months of agitation, the women belonging to the Kudumbashree Cleanwell units in the city were given a reprieve by the Government by offering them the promised financial aid. Though late, the money brought smiles to the 700 plus women who had lost their jobs after the City Corporation’s Capital City Clean City had derailed following the closure of the Vilappilsala waste treatment plant.
The financial aid of ` 10,000 was distributed at a function held at the Kudumbashree Mission office here the other day chaired by Panchayat Minister M K Muneer. He said that sanitation was the local body’s prime duty and the women had helped the local body in discharging the duty. The State Government will always work for their interests, he said. The problems faced by the women will be tackled by the Kudumbashree Mission, the Minister said.
The monetary aid was distributed by Mayor K Chandrika, who said that the local body was engaged in envisaging projects to somehow rehabilitate the women. The aid will reach 746 women belonging to 72 units in the city. A total of ` 74.6 lakh has been set aside by the Kudumbashree Mission to pay the women. The money was promised after the women held several agitations in front of the Secretariat and the Minister’s house. Though the aid was promised in early June at the time of school reopening to help the several women who have school-going children, the Government had failed to disburse the money.
‘’Though the aid is helpful, it does not end their problems. Though efforts are being made by the Corporation to rehabilitate them in the pipe-composting project, few households are interested and so few women are. They want the Corporation to pay their wages and not the house owners,’’ said M A Susy, Kudumbashree Thozhil Samrakshana Vedi.
She said that many women were still looking for jobs and the few who have got into hotels or hospitals are facing hard times since the working hours are long, clashing with their domestic chores.
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