SURKHET, July 2: Birendranagar Municipality has unveiled a campaign for the upcoming fiscal year under which at least one woman from each house will be employed within the next four years.
As part of the 'Prosperous Birendranagar: One home, one woman employment' program, depending on the type of their jobs, women can get 50% loan without interest and 50% grant. For the first year of the program, the municipality has sanctioned a budget of Rs 18 million.
"For the first year, we will be prioritizing women from the underprivileged and marginalized communities," said Mohanmaya Dhakal, deputy mayor of the municipality, adding, "We have aimed to make all women of our village employed in the next four years."
Rural municipality launches 'one home, one employment' campaign
According to her, the municipality is currently collecting details of unemployed women. Those women will be offered a job on the basis of their qualification, skills and interests. Later, they will be provided with trainings for their job.
Birendranagar which is the capital of Karnali Province, has sanctioned Rs 10 million while Rs 8 million has been sanctioned by various wards for woman employment program.
"We will also try to convince the organizations working for the welfare of women and urge them to invest for this program," said Deputy Mayor Dhakal. There are altogether 23,710 households in Birendranagar.
The municipality decided to allocate more budget for women-related programs as such programs conducted last year turned out to be quite fruitful.
The programs like daughter's birth saving account, safe motherhood program, free video x-ray program for pregnant women, free treatment for the conflict-affected women which are running in the current fiscal year will be continued in the next fiscal year too. Apart from that, the municipality will provide 35% discount for registration of land and property-related documents in the name of women. Furthermore, the municipality has announced to provide 20% discount on tax for the businesses run by people of the underprivileged communities or those with any kinds of disability.
Likewise, the municipality will pay the ambulance charge if a woman delivers her baby in a heath post or birthing center, for which the municipality has sanctioned a budget of Rs 2 million. The budget passed by the municipality on Friday given priority to women and health issues. The uniform allowance of female health workers has been increased to Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,000.
