Decisions for Life is the Indian women empower program. Decisions for Life project specially dedicated to empowering and enlightening adolescent female workers and job seekers in the service sectors
A project specially dedicated to empowering and enlightening adolescent female workers and job seekers
Project Details
Worldwide, adolescent women face similar challenges on how to shape their future. These are situations when they look for guidance and information to make informed decisions. For the decisions they will want to know how to cope with issues related to jobs and career, maternity leave, child care, working hours, and balancing work and family responsibilities. Coming to grips with these processes will be greatly facilitated by adequate labour market information, offering transparency concerning wages, benefits, decent work, and legal or collectively bargained arrangements concerning maternity leave and child care.
The project wants to provide this information both through online and offline approach, so that this group of adolescents will be better prepared for their decisions. After all, informed decisions do pay back in terms of better productivity and satisfaction.
Aims and Objectives of the Project
DECISIONS FOR LIFE project focuses on Millennium Development Goals no 3 (MDG3): “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”, and more specifically on MDG3.5: “Promoting formal employment and equal opportunities at the labour market”.
The project’s main objective is to raise awareness amongst these young female workers concerning future employment opportunities and career possibilities, family building, and the work-family balance.
Target Group
It targets adolescent female workers and job seekers in the age group 18-35 working in the service industries.
The project zooms in on eight major occupational groups:
1. Call centre operators,
2. Secretaries,
3. Bookkeepers,
4. IT programmers,
5. Sales persons and cashiers in retail,
6. Front office workers / receptionists in hotels,
7. Travel agency intermediaries in tourism,
8. Housekeepers in hotels.
Project Countries
The Project focuses on 14 developing countries:
1. Brazil,
2. India,
3. Indonesia,
4. The CIS countries Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and
5. The Southern African countries Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Project Activities
The main activities of the project would be to raise awareness through trade union campaigns, workshops, seminars, conferences, website etc.
Trade union campaigns, workshops, seminars, and conferences
The objective of these activities would be to help target group of adolescent female workers:
1. in their decisions regarding future employment opportunities and career possibilities, specifically with regard to permanent jobs, job search, migration decisions, skill requirement, decent work, and earnings & benefits
2. in their decisions regarding the combination of work and child rearing, specifically concerning facilities and regulations for maternity leave, childcare opportunities at the workplace, working from home, leave arrangements, working time issues
3. educate them on ILO conventions and labour laws, etc.
Disseminating information through website
WomenPaycheck website* a special website for the target group contains information on various topics which would help them take informed decisions, for example:
1. an inventory of the national legislation with regard to maternity and childbirth
2. ILO Conventions
3. Salary checker –helping them know the pay scale in different sectors
4. Decent work check
| www.womenpaycheck.in is part of Paycheck India Project (www.paycheck.in) at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. |
Also Check: Decisions for Life Events
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