SEREMBAN: The women folk in the Rantau constituency, especially housewives and single mothers, expect the establishment of more training programmes to equip them with certain skills to enable them to generate income from home.
By having such skills and knowledge, these women will be able to strike a balance between generating side income for the family and carrying out their responsibilities of managing the household including taking care of the children.
One of them, Izal Baharudin, 46, a cleaner at a school here, said majority of mothers faced the dilemma between wanting to do something to supplement family income and staying at home to take care of their children.
“In today’s economy, it is difficult to rely solely on the husband to provide everything for the family, we want to help lighten the burden but we just don’t know where to go and where to start.
“Apart from limited job opportunities, housewives also shoulder big responsibilities in managing the children and the household, there are constraints everywhere.
“That’s why I think we need more activities or training programmes that will teach us some skills to enable us to generate income from home, including handicrafts and so on,” she said when met by Bernama recently.
She said thus far only the Department of Community Development (Kemas) offered courses or skills workshop such as sewing and so on but she said the opportunity was also limited.
Echoing the same sentiment was trader Sabariah Mamat, 43, who decided to set up a roadside stall selling banana fritters and other snacks so that she could keep an eye on her children while earning some income.
“My experience isn’t that unique as I find out that many other housewives involved in setting up similar roadside stall here as Rantau isn’t exactly a very big area so we know each other fairly well.
She said apart from workshops teaching some skills, programmes that offered some knowledge on running businesses including online would be a great help to the local population.
“For the locals here, if they want to find jobs, they need to go to bigger cities such as Senawang and Seremban that offer different economic opportunities as there are many shops, supermarkets, factories and so on,” she said.
Meanwhile, G Vasantha, 45, said the Rantau constituency should be developed with an industry that could open job opportunities so that the population would no longer need to move somewhere else to find jobs.
“As a woman, I am looking for good facilities in terms of infrastructure, public transport, employment opportunities including assistance from the state government for us to start own business,” she said.
The Rantau constituency has 20,926 registered voters comprising 20,804 ordinary voters, 118 early voters and four absentee voters who are abroad.
Of the total, 10,583 or 50.57 per cent are female voters.
The by-election on April 13 will witness a four-cornered fight between Pakatan Harapan candidate Dr S Streram, Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and two independent candidates R Malarvizhi and Mohd Nor Yassin. – Bernama
