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‘Working’ Naari Shakti

Women empowerment through suitable productive engagements is a very seductive idea. But its implementation on ground requires multidimensional planning and execution. — Dr. Jaya Kakkar

 

At the recent National Labour Conference the PM opted to specifically talk about empowering women force to work. According to him setting up work from home ecosystems, provisions of flexible working hours, and non fixed workplaces together would ensure creation of wider work opportunities for women; this then should draw more women into the country’s workforce. He also urged the industry captains to think ways to catalyze entry of women in the newly emerging sectors. He emphasized that the nation can achieve its goals faster if women are coopted as partners in progress. This infact tied in well with his vision to harvest Naari Shakti for the development of the country, a focal point of his Independence Day speech this year.

However, if only wishes could be horses! On ground the governments and the private sector need to walk the talk. The two need to, pull all the levers to encourage women to join the mainstream workforce and facilitate their continued participation at the workplace on one hand, and, on the other removing all the headwinds that come in the way of achieving this idealistic and practical goal. As it stands, India is a dismal standout in terms of women’s actual work participation. Oxfam suggests that GDP would witness a jump of 43% if Indian women had matched the work participation rate of men in India. In actuality this figure is dismally low, compared not just with peer economies but also with some least developed countries.

Despite the need to correct gender imbalances, serious challenges rear their head. The percentage of women in India stands at 48%. But their sectoral representation is woefully inadequate. Infact it has witnessed a downward trend. Between 1991-2005 the female labour force participation rate (LFPR) hovered between 30-32%; regrettably during 2020-21 this figure had sunk to mere 25%. More worryingly while the share of Indian women in tertiary education has been consistently rising and has equaled that of men now, the lagging LFPR of women points towards non utilization of educated women talent in contributing towards economic progress of our nation. Juxtapose this figure with the fact that compared to 46% men being employable 51% women qualified on that critenon, according to the India skill report. Thus not lack of ability but lack of opportunity comes in the way of women joining the workforce. 

Allow us to take the example of entertainment industry for the purpose of illustrating gender imbalance. According to a research India is one of the fastest evolving media and entertainment markets globally. It produces the highest number of films every year. Yet only 10% of key industry roles, including designing, writing, directing, editing, etc. were held by women. Out of the 56 mainstream theatrical films surveyed, not one was directed or edited by a woman. In the trailers; male actors spoke three times more than women. Film promotions were also mainly male centric. And ofcourse majority of films contained typically stereotypical representation of women. These findings, even though not startling, betray two disturbing trends; one, like elsewhere women are poorly represented in the workforce here; and, two, no corrections are being made in the existing picture of women being skewedly represented as far as their participation in work force is concerned. 

The picture is equally pathetic all across. The presence of women in the top echelon of India Inc is meager. According to Global Gender Gap report it may take nearly 200 years to achieve full gender parity. Hence mere high rhetoric will be of no consequence; what is needed is concrete action. So far the record of both the governments and the industry has been dodgy. For example, women’s reservation bill has failed to become an act, thanks to no support from political parties. This is not to deny of course the inherent obstacles faced by the women force in the form of inflexibility in work conditions which don’t suit Indian women; indeed these create personal, cultural, and social hurdles in becoming gainfully engaged outside their home and hearth. Women are usually time poor, forced to work a double shift of home work and care responsibilities. Consequently they either drop out altogether, or may opt for a safer, less rewarding track. During the recent switch over to working back from physical offices, instead of working from home, post pandemic, women have shown greater resigning than men; contrariwise attrition levels had sharply declined when they were offered WFH option during the pandemic. According to another finding just 21% women (15-59 year age group) were involved in paid work, while 94% were engaged in unpaid work at home and elsewhere. The corresponding figures were 70% and 49% respectively for men. Thus when due to social, cultural, and economic compulsions working outside home may not actually be on option for potentially employable women, WFH can push at least some of them into formal, paid, main work stream. This then will have them, personally, lead a more fulfilling, independent, and meaningful life, while, socially, it will enable then to contribute more productively towards India becoming economically more prosperous.

To be sure, however, flexibility of this kind will need to be supplemented with other transformational – and fundamental – changes. WFH fixes only a part of the problem. First and foremost need is to fix the gendered biases. For example, while remote work tends to increase their willingness to participate by women in the workforce, it tends to stall promotion and career advancement for women. Then, any real solution has to ensure that men share equally the burden in household and care work with women folks. It will also call for greater investment in workplace childcare facilities.

At a more fundamental level, among other things, nutrition gaps need to be addressed; in India women being anemic is a norm, rather than being an exception. This tells poorly on women’s working capacity. In general, as pointed out by World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, Indian women suffer from poor health. Thus while the workplace pay parity, care support, flexibility in work conditions have to be configured by the employers, the state has to ensure healthier, better educated, skilled women workers. By stretch of imagination no mean task, but morally and economically needed. Let the PM now guide and direct. 

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