PLIGHT OF WOMEN WORKERS IN UNORGANISED SECTOR

"You can tell the condition of a nation

by looking at the status of its women."

- Jawaharlal Nehru

Courtesy: India Development Review

The Indian Constitution, which is regarded as the supreme law of the land, contains provisions pertaining to equality and better social and economic conditions for women. But irrespective of all these provisions and existing policies, the status of women in the unorganised sector, which constitute more than 90 % of the women workforce(1), is detrimental. The insecure nature of the employment in the unorganised sector as well as the existing patriarchal social set up make their lives equal to that of slaves. Their professional as well as domestic lives are filled with stones and thorns which make them difficult to stand upright.

The predicaments pertaining to these workers have many aspects, such as economical, political, physiological, sociological, legal, and so on. While women in the organised sector fight battles for their rights, including Provident funds, insurance, etc., these women who don't even have awareness about their basic rights, are lacking behind the huge curtain of the economy. Therefore, this is the time to shift the focus to their lives for perceiving pertinent solutions. In this article, I will shed light on the dilemmas of women workers both in the workspace and domestic sphere and will knock them off by providing possible solutions.

WOMEN: THE MAJOR PART OF THE UNORGANISED SECTOR

Women represent:

50% of the population,

30% of the labour force,

Perform 60% of all working hours,

Receive 10% of the world’s income,

Own less than 1% of the world’s property.

-International Labour Organization

Indian women make up more than one-third of the essentials for economic development and population planning (The World Bank, 1991) The 'unorganised sector of our economy' comprises a huge fraction of the female labour force. In accordance with the 'National Commission for Women' 94% of the total female workforce comes under the label of unorganised sector. An unorganised sector can be defined as a sector where the elements of the organised sector are absent. The terrain of the unorganised sector becomes unwieldy with the kaleidoscope of unregulated, un-unionised, illiterate, ignorant, scattered, and low-paid workers.

The “National Commission on Labour” (1966 -69) has defined unorganised labour as "those who have not been able to organise themselves in pursuit of common objectives on account of constraints like the casual nature of employment, ignorance and illiteracy, the small and scattered size of establishments, and position of power enjoyed by employers because of nature of the industry." It is explicitly comprehensible that the life of workers in the unorganised sector, which provides minimal social security, is miserable. Due to the existing patriarchal social setup, women, who constitute the major part of the unorganised sector, have to lead a more deplorable life mainly contributed by the dual responsibility which she has to bear. This dual responsibility, in simple words the responsibilities which women have to bear both in the domestic sphere and work space won't allow her to take a breath properly in her entire life.

WOMAN WORKER & HER WORKPLACE

"जहाँ पर मैं पहले काम करती थी वहॉं पर

मुझसे वो ज़्यादा काम करवाते थे मगर पैसे

एक दिन के ही देते थे एक्स्ट्रा काम के नहीं"

These are the words that I heard from 38-year-old Sakeena, who is a migrant labourer from West Bengal and who started her journey as a construction worker in childhood. Female workers are more vulnerable to these kinds of exploitations than their male counterparts. One thing that I found synonymous after interacting with women workers, is absolute illiteracy, or more specifically, the inability to read, write, and understand basic things. I want to emphasise that this is the root cause of predominant problems in their life. In other words, ignorance, and illiteracy are the major obstacles to the progress of working women.

The spectrum of issues they face is much broader and more detrimental. This range from the level of low payment and extent to the level of henious actions including sexual harassment. Following are the prime predicaments faced by the women in the Unorganised sector.

UNEQUAL AND INADEQUATE PAYMENTS

If we consider the unorganised sector jobs like Domestic workers, manual scavengers, etc, it explicitly throws light on the fact that 'Women work the most; paradoxically they earn the least in life'. Most of the time, women receive substantially less payment than their male counterparts for the same work. When I enquired about the income of male and female construction workers in Sudhir Bose Marg, New Delhi, I came to know the male is paid Rs 380 while the female is paid Rs 260 for a 12-hour shift. Women scavengers are one of the least paid groups in the unorganised sector. In accordance with a report by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute, BARTI, Pune, employees of urban municipalities are paid Rs. 30–40 a day.

Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune

There are middlemen who usually enrol workers by offering loans, and these loans are then subsequently repaid by tampering with the worker's wage. Again, women construction workers are the foremost victims, and most of the time even their names won't appear in the wage register instead their output gets added to their male counterparts. The practice of giving bonuses on special occasions is unusual, and mostly it is substituted by giving sweets and other accessories.

HEALTH HAZARDS

Lack of provision of sanitation which makes the workplace unhygienic is one of the predominant problems faced by women in workplaces like construction sites, and brick kilns. Along with this in most instances, the workplace is not ergonomically designed which leads to the culmination of health issues in these workers who already lack proper nutrition due to their ignorant nature towards their own health. Some studies demonstrate that Female workers work twice as many hours as their male counterparts. As per one study in the Himalayas which found that on a one-hectare farm, a pair of bullocks works 1064 hours, a man 1212 hours, and a woman 3485 hours in a year (Shiva FAO,1991).

These extreme working hours especially in the agricultural fields where women are required to be in one position for a long time can even result in premature and stillbirths. Another aspect is that in a rice-growing belt of coastal Maharashtra it has been found that 40 % of all infant deaths occurred in the months of July to October (Which includes the rice transplanting months). The majority of births were either premature or stillbirths. Health issues contributed by the hazardous nature of work, especially in the Toboca and Beedi-making industries where women constitute a huge fraction is deplorable. According to a study conducted by Pooja Tripathi, Rajnarayan Tiwari and Ramachandra Kamath, a total of 63.9% of women had occupational health problems compared to 48.5% of men.

One of the disregarded truths of our society is the existence of sex workers who are the victims of heinous crimes and the need to address their issues regarding the inhuman condition and public health can't be kept aside in order to respect norms of prudery.

LACK OF SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

The unorganised sector is characterised by lack of social security benefits and employer-employee relationships which makes the job terribly insecure in nature. Utilising social means to prevent deprivation and the vulnerability to deprivation constitute the fundamentality of providing social security benefits. In accordance with a study on the working condition of women in the unorganised sector in India, submitted to the Ministry of Women & Child Development, by RG Foundation, it is seen that 88.33 percent of female workers are not eligible for any social security benefits. It is the condition of workers in the Principle status. The same report states that workers in subsidiary status do not have any social security benefits.

Unfortunately, a majority of women workers in the unorganised sector are "victims of invisibility," meaning they don't have any legal recognition, which is fundamentally required for making social security benefits a reality. Several occupations, including street vendors, don't have any legal protection; instead, in certain cases, authorities take advantage of them and harass them; they are also forced to pay bribes in order to do their job. 90% of women working in the informal sector, according to the World Bank, are not counted in official statistics since their labour is unrecorded and is seen as paid work in disguise.

LACK OF EMPLOYER - EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP

Home-based workers are one of the worst victims of the absence of an employer-employee relationship. The "person" for whom the home worker works provides for them financially, but neither assumes any responsibility for them nor guarantees any kind of security. They are also the victim of various forms of exploitation due to this opaque and enigmatic relationship. Moreover, due to the lack of employer-employee relationships, the government would face difficulties defining rights and responsibilities and introducing policies pertaining to minimum wages or other such social security benefits to these workers. Apart from this, the trait of seasonality involved in most of the work in the unorganised sector also contributes to its insecure nature. For instance, some of these workers only have employment for three months in a year, and the rest of the year they are unemployed.

LACK OF BARGAINING POWER

Lack of bargaining power is another common trait of the majority of women workers in the unorganised sector. The women in this sector won't fight a battle for them. Lack of awareness regarding their rights and the patriarchal mindset that is embedded in their minds, which moulds them to view themselves as weak, are the core reasons behind this. Unfortunately, if someone breaches these boundaries and begins to demand their rights, the situation won't get better; instead, it will result in threats and higher levels of exploitation. Workers are compelled to remain silent against the cruelty shown to them.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 defines sexual harassment as the following "Sexual harassment includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behavior (whether directly or by implication) namely: (i) physical contact and advances; or (ii) a demand or request for sexual favours; or (iii) making sexually coloured remarks; (iv) showing pornography; or (v) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature. But irrespective of the act today as well a large number of women workers in the unorganised sector are subjected to sexual harassment.

Courtesy: Scroll

According to a study report submitted to the Ministry of Women & Child Development by RG Foundation, Tribal construction women workers are sexually exploited by Masons, contractors, the police, and others regularly but women don't report it out of fear of the repercussions. The other group of workforce who are the frequent victims of sexual harassment is the domestic workers. Apart from this several reports suggest that women scavengers are sexually harassed by the upper-caste male.

The spectrum of problems in the workspace doesn't end here. And these vulnerabilities won't go away anytime soon either, as they pertain to a segment of the workforce that has been unable to organise in pursuit of their common objectives due to various constraints. Therefore, there is less of a possibility that they will unite together and come up with answers to their difficulties.

DILEMMAS IN THE DOMESTIC SPHERE

" Think of the life of the working women as the decathlor. If you even finish it's a miracle."

-Barbara Dale

Women in our country perform multiple roles; hence, she is also facing multiple problems. When it comes to working women in the unorganised sector, they have to shoulder dual responsibilities with work and home without even having proper time to breathe. The slight difference is that in the former sphere, she is paid little while doing unpaid labour in the latter. The paradoxical reality is that she doesn't have a voice in her family, despite performing this unpaid labour like a machine and contributing to the family's financial condition through her meagre wage. I have interacted with a woman working on the construction site both in the presence and absence of her husband. In the absence of her husband, she was speaking clearly. But when he entered the frame, the scenario changed completely. She is not only scared to speak, but the man is also answering the basic questions regarding her life instead of letting her respond. In addition to this, in their domestic lives, women workers are subjected to various kinds of torture, both mentally and physically, by the male members of the family. It can be in the form of beatings, abusive words, or even extend to the level of sexual harassment.

These are the dilemmas that women face in the presence of a male member in their family, but if there are no men in the family, she is subjected to more extreme forms of exploitation. A young IAS officer named Dr. Renu Raj narrated an embarrassing occurrence in an interview given to the Manorama news channel on International Women's Day. Once, a woman worker approached her, seeking help regarding the construction of a safe, secure home. That young woman's life was so pitiful that she was unable to sleep a single second at night after struggling so hard to manage her family as the sole earner. She was staying in a house that lacked basic facilities, including a proper door, and at night, male workers who lived nearby would come and knock on her door for heinous wants. This is one of the harsh realities that happen every day. Now consider the female workers staying in the temporary residential shelter put up by the contractor. Not only are these workers unsafe, but also staying in this kind of shelter, which lacks basic sanitation provisions, contributes to their bad health. Additionally, these kinds of shelters lack the capacity to protect them from extreme weather conditions. After interacting with construction workers, I have understood that frequent shifting in their workplace not only affects the proper schooling of their children but also deprives them of primary facilities like ration cards.

MOVING FORWARD

The status of women in the unorganised sector remains as it was decades ago, irrespective of the number of legislation, committees, schemes, and provisions in the constitution regarding equality and the social-economic life of women. It is pitiful that more than ¾ of women workers are not even eligible for the majority of social security benefits. Therefore, it is imperative to address their predicaments and to deliberate on the institutional changes mandatory for their emancipation and empowerment.

Solid and substantial implementation of the 3 Ls of empowerment is the need of the hour. The foremost "L" denotes "Legal Recognition," which is the fundamental phase. Once we recognise and document all the women workers and their occupations, which come under the unorganised sector, then only the government can make consolidated laws for them. Censuses are an efficient way to accomplish these.

The second L denotes "legal protection," which is inevitable for their emancipation. The introduction of umbrella legislation that can provide shade and shelter for all women workers is an absolute necessity. This can be done through public policy reforms. In other words, there is a burning need to amend the existing laws in such a way that they are applicable to all the workers in this sector. In order to give workers more secure employment possibilities and to safeguard them from all forms of exploitation, it is also vital to develop new policies and programmes like MGNREGA. Moreover, there should be a check and balance system in place to ensure proper execution. Breaching these policies should be subjected to appropriate punishments.

The third L denotes literacy. What would be the ultimate result if the government initiated policies and measures but the employees were not aware of their basic rights? Moreover, how can we expect these workers to comprehend their rights when they can't even read and write their own names? Here comes the significance of literacy. Self-awareness and education are the magic wands that will fuel the revolution. Facilitation of education and skill training in the field of the unorganised sector can work wonders. This will also promote a sense of unification in the form of various self-help groups, thereby developing the strength and courage to voice their issues in the public sphere. This will also be reflected in the lives of their children, which will assuredly stop the cycle of their woes being passed on from one generation to the next.

In addition to this, there are a few more factors that demand special consideration. Most importantly, ensure sanitary provisions in industries with high female employee populations. The majority of the women workers lack the courage to approach the authorities for the redress of their grievances. Hence Setting up a grievance cell headed by a woman for any sort of exploitation that provides them comfort to reach out is an absolute necessity. Despite lacking various basic amenities, it is fortunate that the majority of female workers have access to mobile phones. Therefore, mobile phones can be utilised as a tool for spreading awareness, and a helpline number for any sort of query, information, or complaint is necessary. It is also important to grant licences for specific jobs in the unorganised sector. For instance, if the government issues licences to street vendors, it will contribute to the reduction of bribery and corruption and increase the discipline and regulation of street hawking.

CONCLUSION

It is a perceived truth that there is still no society in India in which women in the unorganised sector enjoy the same freedom as men. In other words, there is no society in our country where these women lead pleasant, healthy lives. Both are too far away from perceptibility. In terms of words, women are praised as goddesses, but when it comes to action, the same person will treat her as a slave. A change in this paradoxical condition is urgently needed, and this will contribute to the eradication of the existing patriarchal social setup. Along with this, the effective implementation of the 3 Ls of empowerment will bring magic into the lives of women employed in the unorganised sector. As a result, she will begin to shed the layer of her submissive personality that has been embedded over her skin through generations and start to feel proud and dignified about being a woman worker contributing to the world's fifth-fastest growing economy.

Courtesy: Ungender

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Devika G. Nair

Packed with optimism and compassion, Devika G Nair is a joyful human who hails from Kerala God's own Country. Currently, she is pursuing BA(Hons.) Political Science from Hindu College, University of Delhi. Owning multiple interests and hobbies including researching, reading, writing, cooking, and travelling, she is a very curious human who is interested in exploring new horizons throughout life. Born as the daughter of a father who cherishes the value of classical art forms, she stepped into the field of art and culture even by the age of 3. Now she is a professional Kathakali dancer, who is receiving CTSS scholarship provided by the CCRT Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India for Kathakali dance And has won several prizes not only for Kathakali but also for other classical art forms including Bharathanatym, Mohiniyattam, and Ottamthullal. Apart from this, she has a keen interest in areas including Public policy, Rural development, Child development, Women empowerment, studies regarding the pro-poor section of society, Social services, and so on. She lives with the purpose to create a better tomorrow where the marginalised sections of society have a voice in determining the destiny of the same. This article is a humble attempt to address the issues faced by women in the unorganised sector of the Indian economy.

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References

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