INDIA'S VIEWS ON GENDER AND WORK NEED REFORMING

The fault lies in our attitude to work as usual. We do not view all work as work. The work that women do at home is the most underestimated in the world

- HARISH BIJOOR

INDIA’S Chandrayaan-3 Lunar Mission was a super success. India is on the moon. And over the moon as well. Celebrating this success, one of the defining images that sticks in my mind is that of the number of women scientists involved in the mission. More than 100 women played a stellar role in conceptualising, designing, testing and executing Chandrayaan-3. Hats off to them.

On a different note, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s latest data on the involvement of women in the workforce states that 39 million women are employed, as opposed to 361 million men. This points to a gory fact: 9 out of 10 in the workforce are men.

Now is this a reality? When you board a Mumbai local train in the morning during the peak work time, is this what you see? Of the 4,500-odd people on a single train that literally spill onto the platform, do you see 9 out of 10 being men?

Actually, no. A recent study of ours across Mumbai and Delhi indicates that Mumbai trains carry as much as 44% women and Delhi trains 36%. But then local trains are not the only way people get to work. Many walk. Many take the bus. Look around. Is the proportion of working men versus women overstated in more ways than one?

The argument holds water. Big cities see more women in the workforce and smaller towns and villages see fewer. The national average evens out, highlighting that female labour force participation stands at just 24% in India.

And this includes farm labour. A sector whose precise audit is well-nigh impossible a task. And therefore, we conduct smaller studies and surveys, and extrapolate for the entire country. And there lies the primary fault.