Women's Ministry wants amendment to portion of NHIL

Accra, Sept. 25, GNA - The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) on Tuesday proposed an amendment to provisions in the National Health Insurance Law that stipulate that both parents must be registered before children under 18 years could enjoy the free policy. According to the Ministry, interactions with women groups and organisations throughout the country revealed that this position of the law was depriving many children from enjoying their rights. Hajia Alima Mahama, the sector Minister, who was speaking at the meet-the-press series in Accra, said although most women had registered for the policy, their husbands did not and thus their children could not benefit from it.

She said most women complained that they could not force their husbands to register against their will. "We are therefore advocating for an amendment of this provision" to enable every citizen to benefit from it.

The meet-the-press is a platform for sector ministers to outline their activities and achievements for the year and also answer questions from the media.

Hajia Mahama said the Ministry had been organising workshops, conferences and training courses to equip its staff and other stakeholders with requisite skills to develop their human resource capacity.

She said to ensure that information on government policies reached women, especially those in the remote areas, the Ministry had been organising regional durbars in all the 10 regions to disseminate and share information that enhanced the empowerment of women, children and the family.

The Minister said those interactions provided another opportunity for disseminating information on government policies and sensitising communities on protection of children and the rights of women. On migration, she said, the Ministry viewed the issue as a priority concern, especially the involvement of children in the sector of domestic labour, adding that this had prompted the Ministry to embark on a registration exercise to withdraw the affected children and send them back home and to school.

Hajia Mahama said so far about 2,432 children had been registered and the Ministry was developing a database to support their rehabilitation process.

Hajia Mahama said the Ministry was also promoting the economic rights of women by providing them with opportunities, including access to micro-credit, loans, skills training and information to improve their livelihood.

She said the micro-credit programmes also included mobilisation of women groups and skills training for women beneficiaries of the fund. That, she said, was to enhance cohesion of the women's groups, to provide them with skills to be able to carefully analyse the market situations to ensure that their economic activities were financially profitable.

"In addition to credit facilities, the Ministry last year used part of its HIPC funds to procure 43 Agro processing equipment, cassava processing equipment, shea butter processing equipment, Palm Oil and Groundnut processing equipment from the GRATIS Foundation. The equipment were distributed to 43 women groups country wide to enable them add value to their products.

"A start up capital of 20 million cedis was disbursed to each group to purchase raw materials for their operations and about 3,520 persons are benefiting from the operation of the equipment. "This year, the Ministry has contracted GRATIS Foundation to supply another 45 Agro Processing Equipment," she said. The Ministry, she said, also supported women's economic activities by supporting 10 women farming groups to procure 10 tractors to enhance their productivity.