The recent decision by the government for the establishment of special sections for women at government departments to provide services to the public will still meet with difficulties when it comes to actual implementation.
Instead of facilitating matters, such a move may even consolidate duplication as happened in the past when we used to have two separate departments for education, one for boys and the other for girls. That system, however, ceased to exist following a tragic fire that resulted in the death of a number of young girls. Having two departments to oversee education proved to be a heavy burden on the state budget and resulted in a bloated civil service.
By deciding to have separate sections for women in government departments we would be committing the same mistake. There are fears that duplication would further expand to include other public institutions like hospitals and shops and may even reach the air travel sector.
Implementing this system would require allocating more funds and this would definitely put more pressure on the state budget by doubling the expenditure spent on the two-tier system.
The resulting complications call for searching for another solution. The simplest and easiest way to do is having sections at government offices that simultaneously serve both sexes. This, however, may require restructuring the state apparatus but it still is not an impossible task.
This system is being applied in many countries of the world including our Gulf neighbors like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. We would be saving time, energy and money. Training to do this kind of work is not a difficult task.
Expanding the scope of electronic services, notably the Internet, could do it. For example, we can have a women’s section where only women staff are employed that issue identity cards for both women and men without necessarily requiring people to appear in person. Anyone applying for an identity card, whether male or female, may access the site and provide the required information. The card and any other service would then be sent to the applicant at his/her address. This system could also be applied in other services like passports, commercial registration, utility bills and others. There would be no need for people to queue up at government offices and spend hours waiting to be served.
