Opposition wants govt to spend more on women
Opposition Member of Parliament for the PPP, Dr. Vindhya Persaud
Opposition Member of Parliament for the PPP, Dr. Vindhya Persaud

OPPOSITION Member of Parliament Dr. Vindhya Persaud on Wednesday called on the APNU+AFC Government to spend more to develop the lives of women here.“In 2015-2016, my gender has been conspicuously ignored and marginalised,” she told the House on the third day of debates. She urged the government to move towards gender equality while noting that it failed to deliver transformative initiatives in the budget. According to her, women are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to earnings and the budget fails to address this critical problem.
“The 230B Budget 2016 has failed to deliver transformative initiatives which will impact on women’s financial enablement and skills development and has not offered a plan for structural support to women in the throes of domestic violence or to those struggling to survive and provide as single mothers.”
Dr. Persaud described the merging of Women and Men’s Affairs Bureau as a “cosmetic merger” and noting that that coupled with a new gender policy will not address the fact that women are still at the bottom of the earning ladder in a patriarchal society. She said too that women’s equality cannot be discussed in insolation of domestic violence. She accused the government of relegating the problem to the back burner.
The Opposition Member of Parliament said she would have been heartened to hear of initiatives to remove some of the burdens from women which include minimal cost daycare facilities for parents, special programmes for teenage mothers, parenting programmes, support programs for widows, survivors’ trauma, violence and abuse, and labour policies to benefit women.
Dr. Persaud argued that women make up 50 per cent of the population and as such “investing in women’s capabilities and empowering them to exercise their choices contributes to economic growth, overall development and the future financial status of children are much more likely to reflect those of the mother than those of the father.”
Dr. Persaud said the 2016 budget cannot be supported as is because it fails to cater for all Guyanese. “A government must be for all of Guyana as every Guyanese, each one regardless of their political persuasion or any other distinction or difference deserves equal opportunity and benefits.”
Finance Minister Winston Jordan in his presentation before the National Assembly said his government is “working assiduously to develop a society where all girls and boys, women and men live together in safety and harmony, with dignity and mutual respect.” In this regard, Jordan said Government is committed to establishing a national consultative process to create a national policy on gender and development. This he said is aimed at strengthening gender responsive structures, processes and mechanisms that support both men and women. The National Gender Policy will be launched, in 2016.

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