On one hand, where the whole world is celebrating International Women’s Day, talking about empowering them, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on other hand is trying to push women towards unemployment. First, the civic body expelled the women from self-help groups, who used to take contracts of mid-day meals and now they have expelled them from the nullah cleaning project as well.
Prior to the monsoons, the civic body hands over the nullah cleaning work to women self-help groups in 24 different wards. This creates employment for 6,000-7,000 women.
But, now women self-help groups who used to supply mid-day meals to municipal schools were gradually ousted from the contracts and the same was handed over to ISKCON. The same is being done in the nullah cleaning project where the BMC is planning to centralise the contractor.
We got to know that a private contractor is being hired by the BMC and women self-help groups will be ousted. If this happens, it will be injustice with poor families of women who run self-help groups for money,” Lakshmi Bhatia of Jai Bhavani women self-help group and Rajeshree Narkar of Rajeshri Women self-help group.
Bhatia and Narkar told Mumbai Live that they have sent the letter to Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar requesting him not to oust women self-help group. Both expressed displeasure adding that for the last 10-12 years, women self-help groups were running successfully but now the civic body is doing injustice with the self-help groups.
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