Sri Lanka must soon look at offering more maternity leave for female office workers to encourage them to stay in their job, State Enterprise Development Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne said.
Speaking at the Women in Management organised International Leadership Conference titled “Thinking Out of the Gender Box” Forum at Galadari Hotel he said that today the women labour force is very low in Sri Lanka. He said this is also seen in the Free Trade Zones where there are over 50,000 jobs that are yet to be filled by women. The Minister said one way to keep some of the existing female workers in office places is to offer them extended and flexible maternity leave so that they can stay in their current job after child birth.
The Deputy Minister also said that another area that needs attention is a safer and convenient public transport system which would allow women to travel even in late hours without any inconvenience.
“For this, building highways is not the answer.” Wickramatratne also said that he is also dreaming of a day where a 100% Sri Lankan women’s crew would fly an aircraft like what was done by Air Indian team which flew to San Francisco making it a world record. (SS)
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