State to engage consultants for its women empowerment & social protection prog
The state government has floated an Expression of Interest (EOI) to engage consultants for its Project Management Unit (PMU) in connection with its World Bank-funded ‘West Bengal Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Social Protection Program’ to build an inclusive and efficient social protection system which empowers vulnerable groups.
The Finance department mentioned the criteria for selection of consultants for PMU in a detailed notification on its website. The programme, which will be operational till 2025, is aided by World Bank loans. It will support the government at the state level to boost cash transfers for poor and vulnerable households and facilitate and scale-up targeted services for women and vulnerable groups.
A Finance department official said that Bengal’s population, demographically, is aging rapidly with the elderly growing at an annual average of 2.6 per cent, creating higher levels of dependency burden on households and in turn adversely impacting state expenditures and future fiscal consolidation.
The proportion of elderly population in the state was nearly 10 per cent, compared with 9.6 per cent for India in 2019. It is estimated that by 2041, nearly 15 per cent of the population in Bengal shall comprise elderly, compared to a sixth for India. This is primarily due to the below-replacement fertility rate of 1.8 live births per woman in the state. On the other hand, female Labor Force Participation (LFP) remains extremely low at 16 per cent, much below the national average of 23 per cent.
The official remarked that there is an urgent need to focus on increasing old age care, pension and health costs and in parallel improve the female workforce participation. Primarily, the state is focusing on widows who have a challenging social position with little or no inheritance rights and high levels of dependence on their children. The programme aims at developing a policy framework and tools for a unified delivery system at the state level and improving citizen access by combining IT with front-line case management.
