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Unorganised Women Workers
The unorganised labour accounted for more than 90 per cent of the total work force in Census 2001. The total employment in both organised and unorganised sector in our country is 39.7 crore. Out of this, about 2.8 crore is in organised sector. And remaining 36.9 crore in the unorganised sector. Out of the 36.9 crore unorganised workers 23.7 crore are employed in agricultural and allied activities, 1.7 crore in construction, 4.1 crore manufacturing activates and 3.7 crore in trade and transport, communication and services (NSSO-1999-2000). The term unorganised sector includes all those workers who have not been able to organise themselves in pursuit of their common interest due to certain constraints like casual nature of employment, ignorance and illiteracy and small and scattered size of the establishments etc. The Second Commission on Labour (2002) specifies the characteristics of unorganised labour as follows. Apprentices, casual and contract workers, home based artisans and a section of self employed persons involved in jobs such as vending, rag picking, rickshaw pulling, agriculture workers, migrant labour and those who perform manual and helper jobs. So the nature of the employment relationship is the key determinant factor of unorganised labour
From the above analysis it is quite evident that women are most vulnerable and exploitative group in the unorganized sector and need a well thought-out and planned effort from the government as well as society to ameliorate them from the present state of misery.
Insecurity of employment is a big vulnerability that most women face in the unorganised sector. They are usually the last to be hired and the first to be fired. They are often employed in work which is seasonal in nature. They are predominant where there is steady loss of employment, without creation of new avenues for work due to factors such as technological changes, coming up in big domestic and multi national companies, increased imports, forced displacement and government policy. Guarantee of employment and year long availability of work is the most basic social need for women in the unorganised sector.
Gender based wage disparities exist across all sectors and all occupations. While male workers in the unorganised sector are paid wages much below the minimum wage standards, women workers are paid even less. Social security provisions have no meaning until workers are paid wages to ensure an adequate standard of living.
The most productive years of a woman’s life are the reproductive years. The absence of maternity entitlements often means that a women worker has to leave her job to have a child. With the near absence of any effective primary health care system in the country, most women are forced to have children at home without any medical care. Majority of the women and their families are unable to bear the burden of hospitalisation costs. Even when they opt for hospitalisation, additional medical expenses and loss of employment makes women workers economically vulnerable. Absence of maternity entailments also means that a woman worker is unable to take care of he nutritional needs before and after the pregnancy and take adequate rest, and is compelled to start working soon after child birth.
Estimates based on the National Sample Survey (NSS) 1999-2000, women are said to account for one-third, about 118 million unorganised sector workers in India. These figures would be much larger if the unpaid work done by most women is recognised and included. Nearly 95 per cent of all female workers in India are engaged in the unorganised sector. The non existence of social security provisions for the unorganised workers therefore means that an extremely large section of women in the country remain unprotected. None of the Bills regarding Unorganised sector workers that are in circulation take unpaid women workers into account.
Sexual harassment and violence at the workplace is a threat faced by all women workers. The legislation that is being developed now regarding sexual harassment at the workplace is based on the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the Vishakha judgment. These do not take into account the peculiar conditions in which women work in the unorganised sector. Such as absence of a clear employer- employee relationship, absence of non-feasibility of an internal complaint mechanism and so on.
For women workers, their own health and ability to work 4s usually the only resource they can fall back upon. They are the most vulnerable in this regard because their health and nutrition needs very often form the least priority within the family. Women in the poorest households were the least likely to receive medical attention.
Child care is not the sole responsibility of the woman, the fact remains that it is still considered to be so. The absence of child care provisions means that the burden of work on women is increased further tremendously, affecting their health and their work participation.
Many women workers retire from work at an early age, due to ill health or simply because they stop getting employment. The absence of old age security provisions would imply leaving them unprotected.
All the Bills that are in circulation envisage an important role for Tripartite Boards at various levels in the formulation and implementation of various schemes. Proportionate representation is important in sectors such as domestic work that almost wholly comprises women workers.
Depending solely on contribution based, social insurance types of schemes to provide old age, disability pensions would not be enough because most women workers are engaged in either unpaid or low paying jobs. Most women workers also have many interruptions m their working life due to child birth and domestic work at home. Their capacity to contribute such schemes, that too on a regular basis is low.
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