Women at Workplace
- India has one of the lowest female participation in labour force :: LFPR fell from 31.2% (2011) to 23.3% (2017) | this fall is sharp in rural areas (>11%).
- Why such low participation?
- Patriarchal mindset
- Low social acceptability of women working outside the household.
- Lack of access to safe and secure workplaces
- Widespread prevalence of poor and unequal wages | even in US, for every $ earned by a male, women earn only 80 cents.
- Discrimination in the hiring process — structural flaws
- Lack of decent sanitary facilities for women
- Lack of infrastructural requirement for the women workers.
- Education and work — a strong negative correlation between education and participation in agriculture | educated women prefer salaried jobs over agricultural labour.
- It is estimated that among people (25-59 yrs) working as farmers — 33% are women | women as managers and clerical workers is just 15%.
- Unpaid and unrecognised work
- Women are often subjected to work which is grossly unrecognised, under or unpaid.
- We must do 4Rs — Recognise – Reduce – Redistribute – Remunerate — women’s unpaid work
- Marginalised section — muslims, tribals, rural are the worst sufferers
- Women as Migration workers
- Rural to Urban and even Urban to Rural migration is on the rise among women also.
- This calls for the demand of safe and dignified working and living condition for migrant workers
- Set up migration facilitation and crisis
- Helpline number
- Medical and counselling facilities
- Legal aid facilities
- Social housing spaces — rental housing and hostels
- Women shopkeepers and hawkers in all market and vending zones.
- Women @Agriculture — way forward
- Enumerate and remunerate the unpaid and underpaid work they undertake
- Recognise women as farmers in accordance with the National Policy for Farmers
- Equally rights and entitlements over land
- Access to credit, input and extension services
Government must collect data in a more directed manner with suitable parameters to first identify the structural issues which keep women away from entering and staying in the workforce, and subsequently take steps to resolve them in a comprehensive and holistic manner.