KOZHIKODE: Anu Vasudevan, 27, of Kannur had a five-year-long high-flying IT career in Kochi. In 2018, she got married and became the mother of a child the following year. But when she tried to get a job somewhere near Kannur, Anu was hard-pressed. “I have to be at home to look after my kid as my husband is abroad. But I couldn’t find a job even in neighbouring districts. Finally, when I got a slot, the company was reluctant to consider my five years of experience. They said that I had a two-year break and hence I had lost touch,” lamented the woman. Career break is a big issue for women in the state. According to Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC), there are five lakh such women in Kerala.
To reinduct them into the mainstream workforce, the state government is organising a first-of-its-kind exclusive job fair. Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission (KKEM) under K-DISC will organise the job fair in Thiruvananthapuram on December 21, Kozhikode on January 10 and Kochi on January 16. The aim is to offer a platform for the women workforce, enabling them to work at their convenience — work from home, work near home, freelance or part-time. The aim is to get the five lakh women back into career in five years.
“We are making a move in this manner to know how it will work out. This is based on the budget speech made by the state finance minister in February to find out the number of highly qualified women, who are not a part of our employment sector now,” said P V Unnikrishnan, K-DISC member-secretary.
K-DISC estimates that though women dominate the higher education sector in the state, they constitute only 15.6 million of the 30 million employed in Kerala. “Up to 70% of our higher education sector, except engineering, are dominated by women. But these women disappear when it comes to the employment sector. This is alarming. The job fair is an attempt to address this,” said Kerala Startup Mission project director P M Riyas. Grooming and skill upgrade sessions will be organised for career break women.