Introducing Gender Perspective Throughout Lunar New Year... Implementation of Key Tasks Such as Child Allowance Support and Childcare Services... Prioritizing the Creation of Women-Friendly Cities
[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Yongsan-gu (District Mayor Seongjang Hyun) will implement 34 gender equality policy projects in 2021.
The required budget is 18.3 billion KRW.
Major projects include ▲child allowance support ▲childcare services ▲strengthening support for single-parent family independence ▲expanding maternal and newborn health care support ▲expanding childcare service support ▲expanding public daycare centers ▲creating a women-friendly city.
The child allowance is paid at 100,000 KRW per month to children under the age of 7. Last year, the district paid 10.65196 million children a total of 10.6 billion KRW in allowances, and this year’s budget is set at 10.1 billion KRW.
Residents who wish to apply can visit their local community service center or apply online through the 'Bokjiro' website. Newborns can apply within 60 days of birth, and support will be retroactively provided from the month of birth.
The childcare service is a care support service where childcare providers visit homes to look after children under 12 years old. It is divided into hourly and full-day services, and especially for the hourly service, the support hours will be expanded from 720 hours annually to 840 hours annually this year. The district’s related budget for this year is 2.5 billion KRW.
Support for single-parent family independence will also be strengthened. Plans include support for low-income single-parent families’ child-rearing expenses, transportation costs, school supplies, high school tuition, and operation of welfare facilities for single-parent families. The additional child-rearing expense payment target will be expanded from youth single parents under 24 years old to young single parents under 34 years old. The required budget is 1.5 billion KRW.
The maternal and newborn health care project budget increased by 61% compared to the previous year (872.95 million KRW). A budget of 1.4 billion KRW has been allocated to provide postpartum helper service vouchers to all childbirth families in the area. This is expected to reduce childcare and economic burdens on childbirth families and contribute to increasing the birth rate.
As for childcare service support measures, plans include operating hourly childcare facilities (3 locations, 4 classes), night-extended daycare centers for dual-income families (42 locations), adding 2 integrated daycare centers for children with disabilities (currently 9 locations), and operating multicultural daycare centers for multicultural families (6 locations). The related budget is 1.2 billion KRW.
Public daycare centers will also be expanded. In March, the district-operated Keunnarae Daycare Center (Seobinggo-ro, 17,656.76㎡, capacity 70) will open, and in September, the (tentative name) Hangangno 2-ga Station Area Youth Housing Public Daycare Center (Hangangno 2-ga 2-350, 560.01㎡, capacity 48) is scheduled to open. Next year, the (tentative name) Wonhyo-ro 1-ga Youth Housing Daycare Center will be newly established.
Creating a women-friendly city is a key project the district is promoting this year. This month, the district started the ‘Mid- to Long-term Plan Research for Creating a Women-Friendly City,’ which will be completed by July, and will also form and operate a Women-Friendly City Resident Participation Group. A separate task force (TF) team will be operated to discover project tasks.
Additionally, the district plans to build a culture of gender equality in the region through various methods such as ▲raising awareness of gender equality during Gender Equality Week ▲strengthening prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace ▲developing and operating career interruption prevention programs for different target groups ▲improving the qualitative level of women’s participation in various committees ▲establishing and operating an all-day care system.
Seongjang Hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, “Gender equality is a timely task that we all must participate in,” and added, “We will introduce a gender perspective throughout district administration, eliminate elements of inequality, and implement more practical gender equality policies.”
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