The Constitution of India, which is considered one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, ensures equality of gender by making it a fundamental right. The Constitution has many provisions for women workers like equality before the law and equal protection under the law, prohibition on discrimination by the State on the ground of sex, equality of opportunity in matters of public employment, non-discrimination in respect of any employment or office under the State on grounds including sex.

Article 51A(e) of the Indian constitution makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women. Though women in India enjoy citizenship, unfortunately it is only second-class citizenship.

Wage Equality - A Myth

“Though we work very hard in the farms, we are paid much less than our male counterparts,” says Phoolwanti, an agricultural worker from Haryana. Banu Begham, a construction worker from Rajasthan also hads similar stories of inequality to tell.

“Many workers who approach us talk about the inequality of wages that exists in the factories,” says lawyer Anil Rajput. “They might not come to us on this issue, but the issue will come up in due course of discussion,” he adds. Rajput along with the members of All India General Mazdoor Trade Union takes up cases for these workers.

According to a study conducted by the New Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, though there has been a boom in the employment of women in the textile and food processing industry in the post-liberalisation period, in both the sectors women still languish with stagnant wage rates and unhealthy working conditions. This is in spite of the fact that the textile and food processing industry has recorded substantial export-led growth.

Women generally earn far lower wages than men doing the same work. According to the UNDP Human Development Report, women’s wage rates are on the average only 75 per cent of men’s wage rates and constitute only one-fourth of the family income. In no state in India do women and men earn equal wages in agriculture. A majority of the women work in the informal sector. This is a sector were wages are very low. There are no labour laws or social security measures for these workers. The present social security scheme brought by the central government is intended for the benefit of the unorganised sector workers. But one will have to wait and see whether the measures will begin and end with the working males alone?

The increasing mechanisation and technological development is becoming a threat to the workers in many sectors. Whenever there is a crisis, a woman is always given the boot. She is the one who will have to find the means for her family to survive. Unlike her male counterparts, she has to work longer hours and harder for the same benefits. Ashu Traders, a garment-exporting unit in Okhla employed 25 women workers. At present the company has only two women employees. The others, who were on contract, were thrown out when they talked about their rights.

Hemmed in by the Contractors

A majority of the labour in the exporting units are contract workers. A company recruits the workers either through a contractor or through personal references. “Normally, we enter into an agreement with the contractor after a thorough discussion and sign the contract,” says Kaul, the Personal Manager of RMX Joss, a garment exporting unit in Okhla, New Delhi. “The contractor will disburse the payment in the presence of the principal agent of the employer,” he adds. What Kaul says may be practiced by some big companies, but in a majority of the factories the reality is different. There the contractor is the master and he pays the workers according to his whims and fancies.

“When we work for a factory, the employer should have some liability. We may have got job through a contractor, but we are working for the management,” says Manju displeased with the present contract system. Manju, who was working with a garment exporting unit in Okhla was thrown out of job when she sought ESI, PF and entitled amount of pay (Rs 2,848).  “When we got our wages, we had to sign two vouchers, one a blank one and another showing an amount decided by the contractor,” adds Manju. The amount written on the voucher was much less than the real wages.

The story of Saroj, who worked for JFDI Apparels is heartrending. She has been working for the company since 1999 at a salary of Rs 1,800 per month. There was no increment, bonus or any other facilities. When she demanded them, she was terminated from service without paying anything. While serving the termination letter the managing director tried to make her sign a blank paper. When she refused to do so, she was beaten up.

Prakashini, the lady labour contractor for many companies in Okhala, had nothing with her when she first came to the workers’ colony. “But now she has become immensely rich. She is a parasite, who lives on our blood and flesh,” says Sangeeta, who lost her job in a garment-exporting unit. The complaint against her was that she refused to sign on the blank vouchers. “Why should I sign the voucher and make her allow to take the money for which I am entitled for?” asks Sangeeta.

Monica, who works as a teacher in a reputed school in Delhi complaints that even after six years of service she is still on contract and gets a very meagre amount as monthly salary. There are hundreds of teachers in Delhi who work on contracts. Teachers with MA, B.Ed are appointed on contract basis paying  meagre salaries. They are not given even an appointment letter while joining. Nidhi Thomas, who was working as an economics teacher in the Delhi Tamil School was terminated without even issuing a notice. She was called to the Principal’s office only to be told that she need not come to school from the next day. “Other teachers, who were on contract, were also thrown out with immediate effect,” says Nidhi. “The Principal was scared of the School Manager and was not even willing to talk to us,” she adds. This year since the Board exams began earlier than usual, the management of many schools decided to terminate all teachers on contract with immediate effect.

Urmila, who works as a helper in Ashu Traders for a daily wage of Rs 65, says that though the normal working hours is 9 a.m to 5. 30 p.m she has to work overtime often for which she is paid only Rs.10 per hour. Malathy, who works in the same factory, is a permanent employee and gets a monthly salary of Rs 2,100. “Overtime is a must, there are no excuses for it,” says Malathy. In many factories, the women said when they did overtime work they were paid only a part of the wages. RMX JOSS’s Kaul says, “Overtime is illegal. Before sunrise and after sunset women cannot be employed. Only two hours of overtime is allowed and legally they should be given double the rate.” But in India rules are pretty happy on papers.

“Forty per cent of the industries make women work for more than 12 hours,” says Pramod Rajput of AIGMTU. In the garment-exporting units, 90 per cent of the checkers and thread cutters are women. The checkers and cutters stand throughout the day. They are not allowed to sit.  In the normal course, their work is for eight hours. But when there is a bulk export order this becomes 12 hours.

Pathetic Working Conditions

The working conditions of women in the informal sector are quite pathetic. They have to work longer hours without proper rest. In many places where a large number of women work there are no separate toilets for them. They have to share the common toilet with the men. “Since the toilet is always dirty, I control till I return home,” says Deepa, who works for an electronic manufacturing unit. Many factories do not have toilets and women go to open space available in the gardens. In both the cases, women are adversly affected—if she controls she will have serious health problems and if she uses the open space chances of getting infected are more.

At places where toilet facilities are available the duty timings are so rigorous that they cannot avail this facility. Sunitha Rai works as a security guard with International Amount Limited. For the last seven years her duty is at the Appu Ghar, the amusement park for children in the national capital. She stands at the Pragati Maidan Gate No. 4. Her duty includes checking bags of visitors, patrolling the whole area, preventing harassment of women and calling police when there is any mishap. When VIPs come she has to be there with them till they leave the place. For all the work she is paid Rs 2,890 out of which Rs 542 is deducted as PF and ESI. “In reality it is an eight- hour duty. But many a times it becomes quite hectic that I do not even get time to go to the toilet,” says Sunitha.

A majority of the women employees in India work under tremendous pressure. They work both at home and outside. They are the one who run their homes. They fetch water and firewood, cook food, care for the children and ailing parents and satisfy the needs of their husbands. After attending to all these unpaid work she goes out to be abused, exploited and get a pittance as wages.

Preeti Mehra works as a sales girl in one of the posh shops in the upmarket Connaught Place. Long working hours ensure that she has hardly any time to care for her children. “I stay in Palam Village and since it is far off I leave home by 7.30 a.m and returns home at 10.00 p.m. By the time I come back my children are fast asleep,” says Preeti. This is not the woes of Preeti alone, a majority of the married women face the same problem. “At times I feel that I am totally neglecting my children,” says Jyoti Sharma, who works as a merchandiser for an exporting unit.

When women go out for work, it is a fact that the family, specially the children suffer. But without its women working it is difficult for a family to survive. Women are hemmed in than men by traditional values circumscribing their roles. It is also important that women should come out of her traditional role model. A woman can engage in resistance only when she dismantles the biases she encounters in the course of her daily work.

The Nightmares of Nightshifts

The Union Cabinet has decided to lift the ban on women working in night shifts between 7 p.m and 6 a.m at factories by ratifying the Protocol of 1990 to the ILO Night Work (Women) Convention and amending the Factories Act of 1948. The main argument of many of the womens’ organisations favouring the amendment was that the ban on night work restricted employment generation and equality in opportunity. Now, one will have to wait and see the impact night shifts will have on the women employees.

*  Ramani Bhai, who worked with Staricat India, a garment-exporting unit, was thrown out of job for alleged misconduct. According to Rajput of AIGMU and lawyer Anil Rajput, her termination was an act of vindictiveness by the factory Director. When he tried to sexually harass her, Ramani protested. The next day she was shown the door. Her case is still pending in the labour court.

*  Rajni Jha lost her job when she protested the factory manager’s attempt to molest her colleague. Her case is also pending with the court.

There is no security for women workers even during the day. The above two incidents happened when work was in full swing. In India, at present, there is an escalation in the number of rapes and crime against women. There is no security measure for working women. It is in this context that nightshift is going to be introduced in the country.

Saroj works with a plastic container-manufacturing unit in Okhla. She stays at Faridabad. Ofen she is asked to work overtime. After working overtime, she reaches home very late. “My husband or father waits for me at the Faridabad bus stand. I have to walk one kilometre from the bus stand to reach home. It is not safe to walk at night,” says Saroj. Saroj is lucky enough to be picked up by her husband and father. But hundreds of other women workers, who are forced to work at night, are less fortunate. They do not get the protection Saroja gets. “Till now, though night work was illegal the employers made women work during night in the name of overtime. But now the factories will be protected by law forcing women work late night,” says K Hemalata, Secretary of CITU.

In Hyderabad, a majority of the municipal workers are women. Their shift starts early morning and since there is no transport facility at that time they have their dinner and reach the destination at night itself and sleep on the pavement. When there is no security for a woman even inside the four walls of her house how safe are these women who sleep on the pavement?

Introducing nightshift may lead to more violence against women. Murder, rape, molestation and harassment are increasing day by day. Cases of sexual harassment at workplaces are widely reported in many states. In such a scenario, who will take the responsibility for the security of women who work at night? The ban on nightshift is being lifted under one condition that proper security should be provided for women workers. But in a situation where the labour laws and worker’s rights are blatantly flouted, who will spend time to think and implement the security measures for women workers? Who will provide them with transportation facility to go back at late hours after the night shift?

Women’s availability for night work has a bearing on the worsening of the status of women due to globalisation. Privatisation of electricity, water, posts, the highly expensive medical facilities and dismantling of the public distribution system have made the Indian women more poor and weak.  Women in India are forced to work more hard, for longer hours under harsh conditions because she is the one who will have to find the means for making both ends meet. She is willing to take up any profession, which will help her to do that. Unionisation may not be her priority because for her, unions create obstacles in her relationship with the management.

Women and Trade Unions

Charu, a worker with an electronic parts manufacturing unit, says that she is not interested in joining any trade union. “Our condition is not going to be improved if we join trade unions. If go on strike for a day we will lose the wage and there is also the chance of being thrown out of job,” says Charu. Many women workers Labour File met during the course of preparing this report were scared to become members of unions. A majority of them do not understand or appreciate how unions could benefit them. They are also scared of retaliation from employers for joining unions. Many keep away from unions because they believe that it will clash with their family responsibilities. “This is a male-dominated society and women as members of unions will never be heard,” believes Bindu, a helper in a garment-exporting unit. 

According to Amarjit Kaur, secretary of AITUC, “Trade unions at present are listening to women workers’ grievances and are trying to respect women trade union members.” Hemalatha of CITU is also of the same opinion. “In 2003, there has been an increase in the number of women participating in strikes, demonstrations and protests. Last year, women membership in trade unions also increased,” she says. Many central trade unions have started realising the need for empowering women workers and bringing them into the forefront. “Almost all the unions at present have active women’s units,” says Ranjana Nirula of CITU. In 2003, almost all the central trade unions organised women’s conferences. A R Sindhu of CITU believes that any issue concerning women will have a proper impact only if women’s representation is there in the decision-making process. According to various union leaders, in 2003, more women participated in struggles, including accoutants, teachers, nurses, beedi workers and anganwadi workers.

Almost all the trade union activists Labour File met were of the opinion that there is no upward mobility for majority of the women workers. Women remain at the lower echelons of the occupational ladder.

Need Equal Status - So Why Not?

Equality of women workers is an issue, which is always addressed with ridicule. For example, the case of women bus conductors. There are many women appointed as bus conductors in Chennai and Hyderabad. According to transport rules, if a bus breaks down, it is the conductor’s responsibility to stay back in the bus till it is brought back to the depot. Even if the break down happens at night and at remote places, no one volunteers to relieve the women conductor. If this issue is discussed the women are ridiculed for “double standards” in raising the issue of equality. The general attitude is that “if you are the one who cry for equality, and then you should be ready to bear its consequences also.” “This is the most insensitive attitude of the men,” says AITUC’s Amarjit Kaur. “If we ask for equality that doesn’t mean that we cease to be women,” she adds. A hue and cry was raised against appointing women as train drivers because many said it was not possible to provide them with separate rest rooms at the stations where they alight. This is in spite of the fact that almost all categories of railway staff have rest rooms on railway stations. “I do not understand the difficulty converting one of those rest rooms for women,” says Kaur.

Silver Lining in 2003

The year 2003 also witnessed some positive trends.  Following the path of Surekha Shankar Yadav, Asia’s first woman train driver from Satara, Maharashtra, three women train operators have started working with the Metro Rail Corporation in Delhi. Vibha Kumari, Anjali Minz and Meenakshi Sharma have entered the male bastion by choosing professions, which traditionally women do not join. Similarly, the Delhi government’s transport department decided to promote women as school bus drivers. Institute of Driving and Training Research has already started imparting training to eight women. The Urban Community Development Department of the Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to train 100 women as drivers for transporting school children in the city.

The quest of women for equality and emancipation has become a universal phenomenon and similar is the situation in India. More and more women are coming into the limelight in different fields, on different issues. Women are experimenting in the domain of men making sure that there is no need for any domineering approach. But in spite of all these, the gender gap is not diminished and more and more problems surface. Many a times, gender studies are categorised only for women. It is not getting integrated into the mainstream development studies. As Naila Kabeer points out in her book Reversed Realities, “Women continue to occupy a marginal place in development thought and policy. General texts on development may contain the obligatory chapter on women, general conferences on development may have obligatory session on women; general policy reports may contain the obligatory references to women. But the mainstream of the development efforts remains unreconstructed.”

Issues concerning women are barely visible. Why policy-makers and social scientists have failed to recognise women workers as legitimate clients of mainstream development policies and programmes is a question that has to be reflected upon.