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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A ‘duet’ for India’s urban women -Jean Drèze

A ‘duet’ for India’s urban women -Jean Drèze

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published Published on Dec 8, 2020   modified Modified on Dec 8, 2020

-The Hindu

Public works could provide valuable support to the urban poor, especially if women get most of the jobs

The COVID-19 crisis has drawn attention to the insecurities that haunt the lives of the urban poor. Generally, they are less insecure than the rural poor, partly because fallback work is easier to find in urban areas — if only pulling a rickshaw or selling snacks. Still, the urban poor are exposed to serious contingencies, both individual (such as illness and underemployment) and collective (lockdowns, floods, cyclones, financial crises and so on).

There is, thus, a need for better social protection in urban areas. There are not many options. Universalising the Public Distribution System in urban slums would be a step forward (and it can be done under the National Food Security Act), but foodgrain rations do not take people very far. Employment-based support is one way of doing more. It has two major advantages: self-targeting, and the possibility of generating valuable assets or services.

A simple proposal

There has been much discussion, in recent months, of a possible urban employment guarantee act. The nuts and bolts of the act, however, are not so clear, and we have little experience of relief work in urban areas. Further, it takes some optimism to expect a national urban employment guarantee act to materialise in the current political climate. A stepping stone would help.

Some time ago I had proposed an urban employment scheme called Decentralised Urban Employment and Training (DUET). Briefly, it would work as follows (https://bit.ly/33N41zy). The government, State or Union, would issue “job stamps”, each standing for one day of work at the minimum wage. The job stamps would be liberally distributed to approved public institutions such as universities, hostels, schools, hospitals, health centres, museums, libraries, shelters, jails, offices, departments, railway stations, transport corporations, public-sector enterprises, neighbourhood associations and urban local bodies. These institutions would be free to use the stamps to hire labour for odd jobs and small projects that do not fit easily within their existing budgets and systems. Wages, paid by the government, would go directly to the workers’ accounts against job stamps certified by the employer. To avoid collusion, an independent placement agency would take charge of assigning workers to employers.

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The Hindu, 8 December, 2020, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-duet-for-indias-urban-women/article33273503.ece?homepage=true


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