Work matters
There are many people who believe that women should do only women's work and that they should step out of their homes for paid work only if it is absolutely necessary. But the economy is denting such perceptions, observes Kalpana Sharma.
In Aurangabad, Maharashtra, a group of women have taken on the challenging but difficult job of burying or cremating the bodies of accident victims. The women are a part of a self-help group. Traditionally, most such groups engage in traditional tasks - womanly tasks, one might say such as making papads, embroidery, making paper products etc. to earn money. It is rare that you hear of a group that breaks away from the norm.
According to a newspaper report, the women in Aurangabad successfully won a contract put out by the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation for this task. Four groups of men had also applied and had asserted that such work was not woman’s work. Yet, the 11 women of the Panchsheel Mahila Bachat Gat managed to win the contract. They are paid Rs.15,000 per month by the AMC for five bodies and Rs.3,000 for every additional body. The women say that they manage to save Rs.500 per body. And amazingly, these women have overcome their own aversion to such a job and their worry about what others would say, including members of their family. They strongly believe that victims of accidents, often unidentified, must be given a decent burial or cremation.
Gendered professions
This story is interesting because it raises questions about the kind of jobs women can do, or cannot do. While women with education have crashed through many barriers and broken stereotypes in this country, choices for work are limited for poor women. Much of what they do is unpaid work, particularly in rural areas where women engage in agricultural work. Even in cities, poor women either work as domestics or do home-based work for which they are poorly paid.
Then there is a class of women somewhere in the middle, particularly in urban areas, who have some education and want to have a chance at getting steady work. But these women face many hurdles, some of them unexpected. Another story from Maharashtra illustrates the nature of these unexpected obstacles.
The majority of Indian women are engaged in work through the unorganised or informal sector.
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Newspapers recently reported the case of six women who filed a case in the Bombay High Court challenging the decision denying them the position of Assistant Motor Vehicles Inspector. Of the total of 207 posts, 62 were reserved for women. But there was a catch. The women had to be at least 157 cm tall. The reason for this, according to the department, was because the women would have to test trucks and big vehicles and would not be able to do so if they were shorter than this prescribed height. The women, on their part, argued that such a precondition was unfair, that they had met all the other criteria and that they ought to be given the job. Unfortunately for them, the Bombay High Court has ruled that the appointing authority was within its rights to lay down such rules. But the very fact that women are applying for such jobs is novel.
I was also told recently that in Bangalore city, women deliver the post. Post-women. Why did someone not think of this before? It makes eminent sense and gives another avenue for regular employment for women. And in Mumbai, women are driving taxis and in some other cities there are women auto-rickshaw drivers. Unfortunately, the experiment of women bus conductors did not last in Mumbai. But there is no reason why it cannot be tried again.
The majority of Indian women are engaged in work through the unorganised or informal sector. This means there is no job security, there is no assurance of fair wages, and there is no one to monitor work conditions. Also, even as women work in paid, underpaid or unpaid work, their choices are restricted, particularly if they are poor and uneducated. Even in the United States, a recent survey established that out of 500 occupations, one third of the women were concentrated in just 10 occupations that included teaching, nursing and bookkeeping.
Vital contribution
With the increasing costs of living, more women will have to find paid employment to ensure the survival of poor as well as middle class households. Such paid employment will also contribute to the economy in general. According to The Economist, (April 12, 2006) the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the past couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology, or the new giants, India and China. Add the value of housework and child rearing and women probably account for just over half of world output.
Women’s contribution to the economy has always been undervalued. Now economists are putting a value to their work, paid and unpaid. Of course, there are still many people in this country who believe that women should do only women’s work and that they should step out of their homes for paid work only if it is absolutely necessary. But the changing nature of our economies and the pressures of survival amongst all classes, except the very rich, are already denting such perceptions.
The women from Aurangabad, Bangalore’s post-women, the women from Bundelkhand that I had written about in an earlier column and many others are pioneering a real change in attitudes by doing what their mothers would never have dreamed of doing and what their fathers were convinced they could not do.
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Cite this article
Kalpana Sharma (2008) ‘Work matters’, India Together, 5 July 2008. https://indiatogether.org/work-op-ed/
4 reader responses
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Rashmi · 7 July 2008
It's good to know that women are leading in many sectors and thanks for your efforts to bring it to our notice. I would like to add few lines to your article i.e, In Bangalore now we see lady conductors and women working in petrol bunks. They are excellent in their job. But the problem is working with male drivers and passengers. Recently it happened that two guys standing in bus stop saw lady conductor in bus and said "chalo lady conductor hai, maja lenge". Many more such things happen.
R.Sajan · 12 July 2008
Have we considered the Bullying that women undergo in all workplaces? "Bullying is persistent unwelcome behaviour, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism; nit-picking, fault-finding, also exclusion, isolation, being singled out and treated differently, being shouted at, humiliated, excessively monitored, having verbal and written warnings imposed, and much more." Bullying does not happen in schools only. Grown-ups also indulge in or face bullying by peers and superiors. In the workplace, bullying usually focuses on distorted or fabricated allegations of underperformance or ineptitude. Bullying is a form of abuse, and bullies - and unenlightened employers - always go to great lengths to keep their targets quiet, using threats of disciplinary action, dismissal, and gagging clauses. Often eligible benefits are denied to the victim. In countries like Canada, bullying is known as Mobbing. It is perhaps, time that we in India began recognising workplace bullying not as an acceptable style of effective management, but as violence directed at the mental well-being of employees. Capitalism having been given a free reign in our economy and the might-is-right attitude re-accepted as sound social philosophy, we have kind of been bullied into treating all anti-labour and inhuman types of management as progressive, in the emerging neo-liberal system. It is not only the multi-lateral banks which shout hoarse that Indias pro-labour laws are its biggest deterrent to progress; our popular politicians and political parties of all hues have also come round to the view that our labour needs to be controlled more. This in a country where bondage and virtual slavery still exist in the agriculture and mining sectors! Labour that make demands for fairness and justice, and dare to use the strike weapon are very casually described as irresponsible nowadays. Work place bullying is yet to be given due attention here possibly because of our feudal heritage of traditional meekness by the lowly or weak. And for that racial reason perhaps, even our qualified work force in the new businesses and enterprises have a propensity to be submissive to harsh managements, rather than to protest. The IT sector, especially in the SEZs, which are autonomous Republics within our soil, is an example. Deadlines in the production and targets in the marketing areas are enforced with such severity that our young workers tend to get burned out quicker, trying to meet the companys demands on them. Unaware that such practices need to be identified as mere psychopathic bullying, and finding no precedence of such identification, our bright youngsters allow themselves to be exploited to any level by the new Capital. We are told that in the 'great' West, employers can easily hire and fire, employees would not think of going-slow or striking work as they do in India; and that the West progresses because of such employee-devotion to work. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Recognition of the value of human resources in a works occurred in the West from early last century itself and their laws have been therefore, more progressive and labour-friendly than ours in many ways. We still seem to think of a job as an act of charity by the employer to the worker. Enacted laws in the UK, Ireland, Finland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and in many states in the USA against workplace violence on the mind or body of the employee by co-workers or bosses, is yet to find attention in Indian legislatures and courts of law. Our courts do speak of causing of mental agony as a civil injury; but the bully terminology is never seen used. Violence from a manager or colleagues need not be physical to be injurious. For a people that are nationally bullied by politicians through Bandhs, Hartals and the like in a routine manner, Bullying at the workplace might seem insignificant. The deadly effects of bullying on the mental and physical health of employees, and the consequent loss of days and useful performance to the employer need to be recognised in our country before things grow catastrophic; and bullying-induced suicides become common. Our lawmakers should lose no time in addressing the issue without waiting for the demand to rise from the labour unions, which themselves use a lot of bullying of their own membership in the name of solidarity and union discipline. The recent Indiana high Court decision from America upholding the award of damages to the tune of $325000 to a bullied employee in a health care establishment [he had been shouted at by his Boss into mental distress] and the various similar judgments from Europe, ought to open the eyes of our courts of justice as to how the developed world views such matters. Indias being a developed country is itself only a few years away! Anti-bullying legislation is the need of the day as we move on to such glory.
unni krishnan atiyodi · 3 August 2008
Gender discrimination seems to be the worst malady prevailing in our society. They are capable of doing any job that a man can do. When they are willing to bury dead bodies, drive a tractor or bus, do any job that a man can do, they should be allowed to do so. Let them join the armed forces in the border areas, or come forward to quell a riot. The only precondition is their willingness. It is high time to do away with the notion of male hegemony. Given an opportunity, they will perform very well. Politics also is a field that they can thrive. Even the US shudders to think of having a woman president. Stop such unreasonable propagation.
divyesh mehta · 26 November 2008
Good Article, came to know the facts, It is good that women go a long way. Thanks, -Divyesh