Supporting women in access to social security and welfare policies

In her report, presented at the recently-wrapped up 13th National Party Congress, the union leader said that in realising the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress, over the past five years, the Party, army and people have united and made efforts to gain comprehensive achievements in various fields, including socio-economic development, the COVID-19 response and social security, in which the position of woman in the family and society has increasingly been asserted.

In particular, in order to implement the social security policy, the Government has approved various national target programmes for poverty reduction and socio-economic development. Vietnam has been recognised by the international community for its progress in educational development, public healthcare, maternal and child care, as well as its efforts to create jobs and improve people’s living standards, providing social relief and social welfare realisation, in addition to taking care of vulnerable groups with the motto of not leaving anyone behind.

Ensuring social security and social welfare in order to protect the rights of each citizen is an important task set by the Party, Nga stated, adding that it affirms the good nature of the regime, which has very important implications for socio-political stability and the sustainable development of the country.

To contribute to clarifying this task in the coming time, in particular ensuring equal access to social security and social welfare for women, particularly migrant female workers, rural women, pregnant women and those nursing children, the VWU offered four specific groups of measures, the first is ensuring social security in housing for female migrant workers.

Housing policy has always been a big concern of the Party and State. With the right guidelines and the efforts of the people, in addition to the promulgation of the National Housing Development Strategy, the Government has adopted a policy of socialisation to support low-income workers, the poor, and people in difficult circumstances to have the opportunity to own their houses. Some localities (like in Da Nang) also have social housing policies for poor single women to rent house at preferential rates. However, the number of beneficiaries has not been satisfactory, making housing a very urgent issue, particularly for migrant workers.

The VWU chairwoman suggested the State have a satisfactory investment policy in housing to gradually solve housing needs in the immediate future for policy families, people with disabilities, people with difficult circumstances, ethnic minorities and migrants, while at the same time creating opportunities to access public services in education and health care for families facing difficulties and their children, as well as female workers.

Another vital goal is ensuring social security for women during pregnancy and childbirth. According to the International Labour Organisation, Vietnam’s maternity regime is among the countries with the highest rates of entitlement and longest vacation periods in the region. However, it is worth mentioning that the overall coverage of the maternity regime is low. Meanwhile, the issue of pregnancy and childbirth is still a problem for women and seems to be a burden on most women.

It is thought that ensuring social security for pregnant women and those giving birth, especially for those who do not have any insurance policy, is an issue that needs to be addressed in the hope of ensuring women having access to quality medical services, especially the maternity leave support system.

The Government should evaluate the implementation of Decree 39 in order to expand the number of beneficiaries so that every woman giving birth can enjoy the State’s support. It is necessary to supplement the maternity regime for voluntary insurance through maternity packages for women such as health care packages before, during and after giving birth, and child health care packages, contributing to the protection of the health of both mothers and children.

The third goal is ensuring social security for women raising children and children at kindergarten age. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training, currently only 28% of children under 36 months go to school (kindergarten). There are many reasons for it, one being there is no place to send children while their parents are at work. Since 2015, the VWU proposed and got the approval of the Prime Minister regarding a project on “Supporting the development of independent and private childcare groups in industrial parks and export processing zones by 2020”. However, it has so far only met a small part of the legitimate needs of female workers with children under 36 months old.

The State should pay attention to the issue so that families have a place for childcare, especially in densely populated areas, industrial parks and export processing zones. There also should be mechanisms and policies to create a balance of rights and responsibilities between public and private preschool institutions, ensuring the interests of children, salaries for teachers, investment in facilities and material, while increasing the staff for preschool education institutions so that they can deploy after-school care.

The fourth objective is ensuring social security in the creation of job opportunities for women. Occupying over 50.23% of the population, women are an important human resource of the country. The labour force participation rate of women of working age amounts to more than 66%, much higher than that of most countries in the world. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) has created many opportunities and also challenges for female Vietnamese workers, as the untrained female workforce accounts for such a large number, with limited professional qualifications, techniques, skills and physical strength compared to high requirements in the labour market. This shows that vocational training is the key for women to open doors to stable jobs and incomes in order to ensure their own lives have adequate opportunities for personal development.

The Prime Minister has approved two projects on “Vocational training for rural workers by 2020” and “Supporting women in vocational training, creating jobs during 2010-2015”, with some having already gained benefits from such schemes. However, as the training period is short, just under three months, and mainly focusing on training at primary level in a small range of occupations, such projects have not made fundamental changes enabling employees to adapt to Industry 4.0.

Therefore, in order to help female workers have employment opportunities, the State needs to ensure gender equality is incorporated into the process of formulating and implementing vocational training policies, while having a specific vocational training policy for women, identifying vocational training needs associated with female employment needs, providing support solutions to ensure that women have the opportunity to choose professions that are in line with their capabilities, strengths and career values and also suitable for the labour market. In addition, developing family services such as elderly care and childcare can help reduce time doing housework and help women have the opportunity to be trained and equipped with professional expertise.

Through these issues in practice, on behalf of women nationwide, the VWU suggested that the Party and State continue to pay attention to directing research functions completing gender mainstreaming policies in accordance with the Law on Gender Equality, thus creating favourable conditions for women in general, especially pregnant women, those nursing children, rural, migrant and ethnic minority women, to have the opportunity to fully access and enjoy social security policies on employment, education, maternity, kindergartens, and housing. These should be considered a welfare foundation and a pre-eminence that the socialist regime brings to each citizen.

Implementing its responsibilities, the VWU will continue to strengthen its efforts to coordinate with the relevant ministries and agencies to concretise the policies of the Party and State, as well as to develop and implement projects, programmes and policies on social security related to women, contributing to the successful implementation of the tasks set in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, which “cares for all people, ensures policies on labour, employment and income, as well as well implementing social welfare and security, thereby constantly improving the people’s material and spiritual life.”

Source: Nhan Dan Online