Draft to upscale women workforce in tourism sector, soon

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) managing director Shradha Joshi underlined that the task of preparing a policy draft to increase the contribution of women in the tourism sector.

The MTDC-MD shared this information in the W20 session on Tuesday morning. She continued that the Central Government is planning to implement a pilot project to develop sustainability, and security and encourage domestic tourism in 50 cities in India. The implementation would also be in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The promotion of the Buddhist Circuit and Ellora-Ajanta and Grishneshwar Circuit is also on our cards. Meanwhile, correspondence with the union Civil Aviation Ministry is also underway to increase the operation of flights to various destinations from the city.

She pointed out that presently women in the tourism sector are mostly given the responsibility of the back office or front office. There are plans to attract their active participation in other spheres of the tourism sector.

The new policy will recommend discounts and concessions to women in organising the dedicated tours for women or women tourism stakeholders, apart from concessions in taxes as prescribed under MTDC. The government will be making separate security arrangements for the females. The policy is being drafted under the guidance of the state tourism minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha and the secretary Saurabh Vijay, she said in the session.

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During media interaction, the MTDC-MD said that 46 per cent of women work in the tourism sector in the world. However, the honorarium they get is 15 per cent less compared to their male colleagues in the tourism industry. Henceforth, the state government is drafting an independent policy to develop gender equality, reduce the gap in honorarium and encourage women's participation in large numbers in the sector. The details about the policy planning were shared in the W20 session. The final draft of the policy will be submitted to the state government soon. Maharashtra will be the first state in the country to draft such a policy, stressed Shradha Joshi.

The general manager Chandrashekar Jaiswal was also present on the occasion.