Of Rights as Workers: Women in Public Services

1
Of Rights as Workers Women in Public Services

• Indrani Mazumdar,
• Centre for Womens Development Studies (CWDS)
• New Delhi

2

• Indian womens experience of public sector
  employment qualitatively and quantitatively
  different from China in terms of size, share of
  employment, and social role
• Historically low share of women in Indias public
  sector, and even with some increases, still short
  of 18 in 2012
• Relatively greater domination of Community and
  Social Services (CSS) in the profile of women
  public sector employment. In 2011, 75 of women
  concentrated in CSS. Among male public sector
  employees/workers, CSS 48
• Relatively greater presence of women in the
  southern region. Southern India accounts for 38
  of womens public sector employment in India in
  comparison to 22 among male employees.
• This matches broad pattern of higher rates of
  urban female work participation in the south.

3
Industry Distribution of Public Sector Womens Employment (000s) 2001 Share of Women 2001 Distribution of Public Sector Womens Employment Share of Women 2011
Agriculture 48.17 (2) 10 59.63 (2) 13
Mining 55.48 (2) 7 82.78 (3) 8
Manufacturing 92.18 (3) 6 77.37 (2) 8
Electricity/gas/water 44.88 (2) 5 56.44 (2) 7
Construction 63.89 (2) 6 65.35 (2) 8
Trade Hotels 17.34 (1) 10 13.89 (0.4) 8
Transport/Communications 173.41 (6) 6 189.98 (6) 8
Finance/Insurance/Real Estate Business Services 184.30 (6) 15 221.77 (7) 16
Community, Social Personal Services 2170.40 (76) 22 2364.08 (75) 26
all 2850.04 (100) 15 3131.29 (100) 18
4
Region/Zone Distribution of Public Sector Womens Employment (000s) 2001 Share of Women 2001 Distribution of Public Sector Womens Employment (000s) 2011 Share of Women 2011
North 462.62 (16) 15 521.59 (16) 18
Central 354.64 (12) 11 396.11 (12) 13
North Eastern 151.83 (5) 17 166.74 (5) 19
Eastern 296.83 (10) 8 326.49 (10) 10
Western 503.51 (18) 16 612.35 (19) 20
Southern 1076.36 (38) 23 1139.84 (38) 26
All 2850.04 (100) 15 3170.64 (100) 18
5
Uncounted Women Workers in public service
delivery Denied Worker Status and Rights

• A notable tendency in administration of public
  services in India has been the increasing
  recruitment of millions of women as so-called
  volunteers or activists
• Denied any legal status/recognition as
  workers,they are consequently deprived not only
  of employment rights as public sector/government
  employees, but also of any legal entitlement as
  workers to statutory minimum wages and social
  security benefits
• Paid well below subsistence wages,
  euphemistically called honoraria or
  incentives (honoraria referring to monthly
  salaries, and incentives to piece rates)

6

• 3 principal programmes or schemes through which
  the Central Government of India has evolved a
  massive system of underpaying and using women as
  the cheapest workforce for the delivery of
  essential public services
• An army of more than 5 million women workers in
  just these three schemes actually exceeds the
  total number women in official public sector
  employment by well over a million
• ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme)
  employs more than 2.4 million Anganwadi Workers
  and Helpers all women
• National Health Mission employs 894,525 ASHA
  (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers all
  women
• Mid-day Meal Scheme for Primary and Upper Primary
  Schools employs 2.57 cooks-cum-helpers of which
  85 (2.2 million) are women

7

• These Scheme Workers have emerged as a vanguard
  in movements of women workers commanding a new
  respect and support from even male trade
  unionists
• Their struggles have been many, but an
  anti-labour environment has influenced
  particularly the higher judiciary and advances
  made for legal recognition as workers have been
  reversed
• Experience of trade unions seems to indicate that
  in this all female workforce/cadres, the scope
  for growth and development of women leaders has
  been greater
• Paradoxically, the organisation of these all
  female cadres of workers has been by the mixed
  gender based trade union organisations
• The one central trade union that is all female
  and focuses on informal workers has not played a
  role in organising scheme workers