Women in workforce

• India’s female employment trends do not resonate with its high economic growth and rise in female schooling.
• While 37.1 per cent of the youth are in the labour force, there is a stark difference between the participation rate of men (57.1 per cent) and that of women (12.7 per cent).
• India lacks a coordinated labour structure and gender parity.
• 3 out of every 4 women in India do not take part in any recognized economic activity.
• In such a scenario, when more than half of our youth do not participate in the formal labour force, it is difficult to realise India’s demographic advantage.
• One of the ways to narrow the gender gap in India’s workforce is to focus on the country’s 253 million youth (aged 15-24 years), of which 48.5 per cent are young women.
• Between 2004 and 2018 — unlike the shrinking gender gap in educational attainment — the gender gap in workforce participation did not, demonstrating one of the lowest labour participation rates for women, which have been consistently declining since 1950.
• The recently released Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), 2018-19 indicates a dramatic fall in absolute employment for men, and more so women, who faced a decline in labour participation rates (from 2011 to 2019) in rural areas from 35.8% to 26.4%, and stagnation in urban areas at around 20.4%.
• The gender wage gap is the highest in Asia, with women 34% below men (for equal qualification and work), according to a 2019 Oxfam report. This stifles women’s labour force participation, despite the guarantees of India’s Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
• Women also disproportionately populate India’s informal economy, and are concentrated in low-paid, highly precarious jobs.
• Agriculture employs nearly 60% of women, who form the bulk of landless labourers in an almost completely informal sector, with no credit access, subsidies, little equipment, and abysmal asset ownership.

According to IndiaSpend, only about 13% of women tillers owned their land in 2019.

• Manufacturing employs (almost completely informally) only around 14% of the female labour force.
• The service sectorsees women disproportionately involved in care-work. According to the National Sample Survey (NSS) 2005, over 60% of the 4.75 million domestic workers are women.

• A survey by the Azim Premji University, of 5,000 workers across 12 States — of whom 52% were women workers — found that women workers were worse off than men during the lockdown.
• Among rural casual workers, for example, 71% of women lost their jobs after the lockdown; the figure was 59% for men.
• Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) also suggest that job losses in April 2020, as compared to April 2019, were larger for rural women than men.
• Agricultural and allied sectors:
  • A rapid rural survey conducted by Foundation for Agrarian Studies(FAS) showed that in large parts of the country where rain-fed agriculture is prevalent, there was no agricultural activity during the lean months of March to May.
  • In other harvest operations, such as for vegetables, there was a growing tendency to use more family labor and less hired labor on account of fears of COVID-19 infection.
  • During the COVID-19 lockdown, the demand for milk fell by at least 25% (as hotels and restaurants closed), and this was reflected in either lower quantities sold or in lower prices or both.
  • Also for women across the country, incomes from the sale of milk to dairy cooperatives shrank.
  • Among fishing communities, men could not go to sea, and women could not process or sell fish and fish products.
• Non-agricultural sectors:
  • Non-agricultural jobs have suddenly come to halt as construction sites, brick kilns, petty stores and eateries, local factories and other enterprises shut down completely.
  • In the last few years, women have accounted for more than one-half of workers in public works, but no employment was available through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) till late in April 2020.
  • The first month of lockdown thus saw a total collapse of non-agricultural employment for women. In May 2020 there was a big increase in demand for NREGS employment.
• Government scheme workers:
  • The government schemes have been a major source of women’s employment in the last few decades, especially in the health and education sectors, where women work as Anganwadi workers or mid-day meal cooks.
  • During the COVID-19, Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHAs, 90% of whom are women, have become frontline health workers, although they are not recognised as “workers” or paid a regular wage.

• Lack of Economic Empowerment:
  • Women’s Labor force participation globally is 51% while it is 80% for men as per World Development Report 2012. In India it is 23% as per the latest PLFS Survey.
  • Women are underrepresented in senior managerial position and overrepresented in low paying jobs. Oxford Survey shows that globally only 19% firms have a female senior manager.

• Access to productive capital:
  • It is harder for women to access funds and capital for farming, starting a business or for other developmental works.
  •  Women tend to lack access to informal networks that provide opportunities to work in high-profile projects, which include attending conferences abroad or on-the-job opportunities.

• Crisis of regular employment:
  • When women are not reported as workers, it is because of the lack of employment opportunities rather than it being on account of any “withdrawal” from the labour force.
  • This crisis of regular employment will have intensified during the pandemic and the lockdown.
• Nonfulfillment of particular criteria required for women:
  • Younger and more educated women are often not seeking work because they aspire to skilled non-agricultural work, whereas older women are more willing to engage in manual labour.
  • Secondary Education for women is lower than man in majority of countries while this stands at less than 80% in India.
• Unequal pay:
  • Women’s wages are rarely equal to men’s wages, with a few exceptions.
  • Globally women still earn 20% less than men. In a recent ILO report, India was among the bottom five countries, with a gender pay gap of 34 per cent.
  • That is, women get 34 per cent less compared to men for performing the same job with same qualifications.
  • The gap between female and male wages is highest for non-agricultural tasks — the new and growing source of employment.
• Glass Ceiling effect:
  •  Corporates: Women still earn on average 79 percent of what men earn, hold only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions, and represent on average 17 percent of global Board positions.
  •  When it comes to peer recognition, women are at loss as they muster less support.
  • As per Mckinsey report women were overlooked for promotion even in companies like Google for their reproductive choices.
  • Women continue to face the same kind of discrimination at work as they face in society.
  • According to a recent Accenture research report, the gender pay gap in India is as high as 67 percent in corporates.

• Exceedingly long woman’s workday:
  • Counting all forms of work — economic activity and care work or work in cooking, cleaning, child care, elderly care — a woman’s workday is exceedingly long and full of drudgery.
  • In the FAS time-use survey, the total hours worked by women (in economic activity and care) ranged upto a maximum of 91 hours (or 13 hours a day) in the peak season.
  • No woman puts in less than a 60-hour work-week.
• Safety Issues:
  • Concerns about safety and Harassment at work site, both explicit and implicit.
• Social norms:
  • Social norms about household work are against women’s mobility and participation in paid work. Childbirth and taking care of elderly parents or in-laws account for the subsequent points where women drop off the employment pipeline.
  • The cultural baggage about women working outside the home is so strong that in most traditional Indian families, quitting work is a necessary precondition to the wedding itself.
  • When increases in family incomes are there, due to the cultural factors, women leave the work to take care of the family and avoid the stigma of working outside.
  • Social norms and stereotypes: Classifying men as “bread winners” and women pursuing jobs as “career women” was reported by Oxford University Survey. It also highlighted that most of the unpaid work is seen as a women’s job.
  • Deeply ingrained bias: Ironically it exists among both men and women – against genuine equality. According PISA test data, the notion that “boys fare better at maths” is unfounded. Yet this belief still exists.

• Behavioral Nudge: India is encouraging women and girls to enter traditionally male-dominated sectors such as the armed forces and information technology.
  • Eg: Supreme Court in India declared that women could now hold commanding positions in Army.
• Gender Justice at Work
  • Bridging the wage gap for equal work, India has statutorily mandated this.
  • Making work places safer through strong laws. India has enacted Sexual Harassment at workplaces act. Penalty provisions are made for non-compliance and companies must disclose details in their annual filings regarding the same.
  • Every company with 10 or more employees must follow the mandate and constitute an Internal Complaints Committee.
• Social security and financial literacy: Formalization of jobs should be pushed to avail benefits to many women. Until then, social security benefits should be provided to women in unorganized sector. Eg: Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme in India
• Embedding financial literacy in programmes where women have significant representation could be a good starting point.
• Niti Aayog has started Women Entrepreneurship Portal, for hand holding programs for women and proving business models for their work. This will encourage more women to take up Entrepreneurial projects and increase their economic footprint.
• Gender sensitization: Breaking the social barriers by gender sensitization and education at families, schools and workplaces. Eg: In the NCERT Books, gender roles, bias and prejudice inducing writings were removed.
• Strong laws and policies wrt wages and maternity benefits are being provided to promote women’s representation in economy. Recently India increased the maternity leave to 26 weeks from 12 weeks. Creche facilities have been made mandatory to encourage women to take up job after pregnancy and delivery.
• Political Representation: India has provided 33% reservation for women in the Panchayats and Local Bodies. Capacity Building and training can increase their capabilities further.

• Non-farm job creation for women:
  • There is a need to generate education-based jobs in rural areas in the industrial and services sectors
  • The state governments should make policies for the participation of rural women in permanent salaried jobs.
  • The governments should also generate awareness to espouse a positive attitude towards women among the public since it is one of the most important impediments in women’s participation in economic activities.
  • Local bodies, with aid from state governments, should open more crèches in towns and cities so that women with children can step out and work. The crèches will open employment opportunities for women.
• Recognition of the contribution of women:
  • As we emerge from the lockdown, it is very important to begin, first, by redrawing our picture of the rural labor market by including the contribution of women.
• Generate women-specific employment with proper conditions:
  • The immediate or short-run provision of employment of women can be through an expansion of the NREGS.
  • On the other hand, a medium and long term plan needs to generate women-specific employment in skilled occupations and in businesses and new enterprises.
  • In the proposed expansion of health infrastructure in the country, women, who already play a significant role in health care at the grass-root level, must be recognized as workers and paid a fair wage.
  • In the expansion of rural infrastructure announced by the Indian government recently specific attention must be paid to safe and easy transport for women from their homes to workplaces.
• Reduce the drudgery of care work:
  • As the lockdown is lifted, economic activity is growing but the young and old women still remain at home.
  • Further, as the COVID-19 infection spreads, given a higher likelihood of cases among men than women, the burden on women as earners and carers is likely to rise.
  • There is a need for immediate measures to reduce the drudgery of care work. For example, healthy meals for schoolchildren as well as the elderly and the sick can reduce the tasks of home cooking.
• Skilling the women:
  • Initiatives such as Skill India, Make in India, and new gender-based quotas from corporate boards to the police force can spur a positive change. But we need to invest in skill training and job support.
  • The private sector could also take active part in training women entrepreneurs. For example: Unilever’s Shakti program, which has trained more than 70,000 rural women in India as micro-entrepreneurs to sell personal-care products as a way of making its brands available in rural India
• Equal pay:
  • The principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value that is protected by Indian law must be put to actual practice. Improved wage-transparency and gender neutral job evaluation is required to achieve this end.
• Expansion of rural infrastructure: announced by the Indian government recently specific attention must be paid to safe and easy transport for women from their homes to workplaces.
• Reduce the drudgery of care work:
  • As the lockdown is lifted, economic activity is growing but the young and old women still remain at home. 
  • Further, as the COVID-19 infection spreads, given a higher likelihood of cases among men than women, the burden on women as earners and carers is likely to rise. 
• Addressing structural issues which keep women away from the workforce is a must.
• Policy decisions need to articulate gendered concerns during public health emergencies because gender-sensitive pandemic planning may substantially mitigate these concerns.

With more than 75% women not contributing to the economy, the nation is not only losing on the economic part but also the development of 50% of our population. The numeric consequences of reducing obstacles to women’s full economic participation far exceed the demographic advantages of having a larger pool of young workers. It is thus high time to talk of the gender dividend along with the demographic dividend.

There is no, one size fits all strategy as multiple issues are plaguing women workforce participation in India. If women’s workforce participation in India is realized to its full potential and given India’s demographic dividend, it can easily achieve the target of $5trillion economy.