Rp1.6b allotted for women in labor program

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is to allocate Rp 1.6 billion to finance female workers who will join the labor- intensive programs scheduled to start next month, an official said yesterday.

Deputy Governor for Social Welfare Affairs Djailani said the fund would represent 20 percent of the total Rp 8 billion budget for the scheme -- aimed at limiting unemployment in the capital -- as proposed in the city's 1998/1999 draft budget.

According to Djailani, an unknown number of women would be hired for the proposed labor-intensive projects financed by the fund.

"But we don't want them to work on chores such as the clean river project, as this would be against their nature," he said.

"We're looking now for suitable jobs for them."

Since the scheme was introduced by Governor Sutiyoso in January no female workers have been invited to participate.

According to Djailani, the number of women who have lost their job during the prolonged economic woes has reached 6,000 out of the total 15,000 people who have so far reported their dismissal to the Ministry of Manpower's city office.

When first launched in January, the city received Rp 4.2 billion from the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) for the projects, which are also designed to curb potential social unrest here.

During the first stage, from the second week of January until the end of this month, the scheme is designed to employ 35,000 casual workers who recently lost their jobs.

The workers have been hired to repair water pipelines, dredge rivers and renovate dikes and water canals throughout the city's five mayoralties.

Djailani said that 90 percent of the Bappenas fund would be allocated for paying the workers' wages and another 10 percent for administration fees and equipment.

"In the second stage, we've been discussing the possibility of allocating 70 percent of the proposed fund from the city's budget to pay the workers and the remaining 30 percent to finance the administration and equipment expenses," he said.

Djailani said that the 30-percent allocation was badly needed due to the scarcity of tools to work with.

The spending for administration would be used to establish command posts for the projects at the city's five mayoralties as a means to control the realization of the projects and monitor the manpower involved.

"We hope the posts can be used by our staff to strictly supervise the projects and the workers and in an effort to make sure the projects run smoothly as planned," Djailani said.

The administration has instructed all district and subdistrict heads to continuously collect data on residents who have just been dismissed from their jobs, he said. (ind)