The Goa Assembly on Thursday passed a bill which allows women in the industrial sector to work in the night shift.
Deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, who moved an amendment to the Factories and Boilers Act, made it clear that women employees would not be forced to work at night.
However, opposition MLAs including Congress' Pratapsingh Rane, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Ravi Naik and MGP's Sudin Dhavalikar demanded that the bill be referred to the selection committee.
Defending the bill, Kavlekar said many times women do not get promotions as they can not work night shifts.
"There is (until now) ban (on putting women on night shift) only in the private industry, but there is no ban in other industries like airport, hospitality and other sectors," he said.
"This bill gives gender equality to working women. We should not be controlling their working hours. We need to think with a broad mind," the deputy chief minister said.
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Obtaining the woman's consent shall be mandatory for this purpose, he said.
Further, permission has to be sought from the chief inspector of Factories and Boilers too, and no one would be forced to work at night against their wishes, he said.
"Maharashtra has already adopted this bill by putting several conditions (to safeguard women). We will be imposing more stringent conditions than those in Maharashtra," he assured.
"They (women working the night shift) should have separate facilities like canteen and pick-up and drop should be provided by the factory management," Kavlekar said.
The amendment was eventually passed with 26 votes in favour and five against.