Labour Laws Should Discard All Elements of Discrimination Against Women by Measures of Security, Safety and Freedom at Work!
Karma Global Winning Accolades Are Abounding Including Recognition from Associations, Forums, Independent Analyst Firms, Industry/Functional Groups, And Communities of Experts!
Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd. one of the top 5 consultancy firms, established in the year 2004, with headquarters in the business district of Santacruz East, Mumbai, India and full scale operation in all the States, having about 200 direct and indirect staff on its roll, is a leading service provider for payroll and payroll compliances, outsourcing, facility services, HR services, Training & Development, Recruitment & Talent Acquisition, Legal and Para legal services, Disputes and Litigation Handling, Inspection Management and Liaising , Advisory Services , Social , Environment and Vendor Audits, Regulatory Compliances and Governance.
Karma Global over the past few months has become the cynosure of all eyes, in the sense that the galore of awards showered on Karma Global recently for its achievements in various fields, is unbelievable and overwhelming.
Compliance with labour and employment laws have become one of the most important issues that many establishments in India have to deal with. Many of the employment disputes result in litigation and takes a prolonged time for effective conclusions. Karma Global is an Indian HR, Payroll and Compliance Firm advising clients worldwide on local, regional and global regulatory compliances in relation to their business goals, business strategies and resolving disputes.
It gives valuable suggestions and advice to Corporates, Investors, Institutions, Contractors, Establishments, Industries etc. on the need for lowering employment risk across all levels and adhering to the laws of the land. It has a lot of expertise on employment-related compliance issues, as well as day to day support for the Human Resource Services with in-house Counsels.
Karma Global is also into employment agreements and policies, structuring of compensation and benefits, employment aspects of merger and takeover, etc.
Karma Global ’s force, strength and reach has brought in tremendous change over from its earlier image of being a consultancy firm in the period of 2000, to now embarking on setting strategies, practices and business transformation abroad in highly regulated markets and competing in the global arena.
With India over taking UK to emerge as the fifth largest economy in the world and setting to become the third largest by 2029, Karma Global is all poised for long term value in terms of client’s outreach and giving state of the art technology and excellent services to global clients better than ever before.
Labour Laws Should Discard All Elements of Discrimination Against Women by Measures of Security, Safety and Freedom at Work!!!
What Does ILO Say of Empowering Women at Work!!!
Since 1995, equality between men and women in the world of work had seen some encouraging improvements, but these achievements have remained modest.
The COVID-19 crisis nearly eroded this hard-earned and fragile progress. Women and girls are facing severe hardships, including higher rates of poverty and job loss, increased unpaid care work, and greater exposure to discrimination and violence.
No country has so far achieved gender equality, not even among the highest-income countries in the Group of 7 (G7). If no transformative action commensurate with the scope of these challenges is taken, the devastating and long-term impact of the pandemic will seriously compromise the achievement of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the most comprehensive multilateral development framework, adopted in 2015.
Many international and regional normative instruments, declarations, initiatives and frameworks remain as points of reference for advancing gender equality and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It is imperative that governments renew their commitments and act urgently and decisively to reverse these adverse trends and resume efforts to build a better future for women at work.
ILO has already documented how governments can design and implement policies that promote a future of work that is gender-responsive by design and is anchored in social justice and decent work principles.
It focuses on five key areas where government policies can reverse the regressive effect of the crisis and revitalize progress towards the SDGs:
- achieving equal pay for work of equal value;
- preventing and eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work;
- creating a harmonious work–life balance for both women and men;
- promoting women’s equal representation in leadership in the world of work;
- investing in a future of work that works for women.
Let Us Examine the Laws That Confront and Raise Concerns About Women in Standing Up to The Same Standards as That of Men at Work Place:
Shops and establishments in leading states are prohibited, by law, from hiring women at night.
The State Government of Puducherry in November 2022 issued notification for granting exemption to women working in the night shift listing out terms and conditions.
The State Government of Andhra Pradesh in October 2022 issued notification for granting exemption to women working in the night shift listing out terms and conditions.
The State Government of Telangana in October 2022 issued notification for granting exemption to women working in the night shift listing out terms and conditions.
The State Government of Himachal Pradesh in August 2022 issued notification for granting exemption to women working in the night shift listing out terms and conditions.
The State Government of Madhya Pradesh in August 2022 issues notification for granting exemption to women working in the night shift listing out terms and conditions.
While these are some of the good initiatives taken up by the authorities for empowering women, it still remains to be seen how much of participation has there been from the women working community on the basis of the exemptions provided.
However, there are still many States and Territories which have still to broaden the scope of working women so that they too are able to stand at par with men at work at all times.
Measures in regard to health safety and welfare for women:
Unless the workers are physically and mentally healthy they cannot perform their duties effectively. The basic aim of the welfare services in an industry is to improve the living and working conditions of workers and promoting the physical, psychological and general wellbeing of the working population. Thus, it is necessary to adopt measures to maintain their health and to provide safety and welfare measures to the women workers and regulate their working condition.
Women have to face various contingencies when they are involved in employment such as sickness, maternity, disablement, employment insecurities and risks.
All the relevant factors constitute an important step towards the goal of a welfare state by improving the living and working conditions and affording adequate women protection against the uncertainties of the future.
Sexual harassment is not only viewed as a discrimination problem related to safety and health, but also as a violation of fundamental rights and human rights
Women are often unaware of their rights and also many a time keep things quiet in fear of losing their jobs.
Employers need to be more proactive about spreading awareness and fighting against sexual harassment at the workplace. Employers and trade union ought to take more active steps towards the prevention and punishment of such activities. This can be done through policies and procedures adopted within the industry itself.
The sense of security at the workplace will improve women’s participation in work, resulting in their economic empowerment and inclusive growth.
Separate toilets and washing facilities, drinking water etc., are not either provided or not adequately maintained. There are virtually no medical facilities and maternity benefits.
The laws, policies and welfare system that are proposed for women workers cannot be effective unless they themselves are conscious of law and acquire the strength to ensure that laws are brought into force.
Women are struggling to find her social status and a respectable place in the society at the time Indian women were in a need of some laws in order to improve their social position and to ensure proper safety against mental and physical torture.
At most work places, be it Corporate or even in Government offices, the power play dynamics is exploited where women are more vulnerable. Many male superiors take advantage of their juniors and harass them by indulging in unlawful activities. Lack of women representation generally in every field creates a void in society.
Men can work for more time but it does not permit women workers to go beyond the limit, maximum permissible load, prohibition of night work and may other safety measures.
The divide among young adults
Using national representative data from the time use survey 2019-20 for India, it was explored how an average employed young adult in India spends their day and how the pattern differs for men and women.
As per the survey, around 78 per cent and 70 per cent of young men in rural and urban India, respectively, were in paid work and the same ratios were 16 per cent and 17 per cent for young women.
The survey classifies a person as ‘employed’ if they are in paid work during the major time of the reference year (six months or more), irrespective of the number of hours worked.
On average, young men in urban India worked the longest hours — 8.5 hours daily, followed by just over 7 hours among young men in rural India. Employed young women in urban areas worked for 6.5 hours, while in the rural areas, time spent in paid work was around 4 hours and 45 minutes on average. The pattern is suggestive of a larger proportion of employed women in part-time employment, especially in rural areas.
While young women in paid work spent less time working for monetary returns compared to men, they spent much more time in domestic work. Employed young women in paid work in rural India spent about 4 hours and 50 minutes on household chores while their counterparts in urban areas spent around 2 hours and 45 minutes on domestic work. In contrast, employed young men spent only 40 and 30 minutes in rural and urban areas, respectively, carrying out domestic work.
CONCLUSION – there are still various factors that have caused women lagging behind men like social attitude, traditions, custom, marriage, gender based division labour, lack of confidence, sexual harassment fear.….!
The Government has already undertaken various legislative measures for protection to women workers: The Factories Act, 1948, The Mines Act, 1952, The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, The Payment of Wages Act, 1936, The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 etc., but there still remains a lot more to be done for them if India is to meet the standards as set out by ILO.
The Constitution of India mandates that women must be treated as equals and prohibits any discrimination against women in all areas, including education, vocational training, skill development and employment. Our Constitution also protects the rights of women workers by ensuring that their health and safety is duly protected in the course of employment, particularly those of pregnant women.
The Constitution also safeguards the dignity of women workers and ensures that they are provided a safe working environment free of sexual harassment. In order to fulfil the constitutional mandate all labour laws contain special provisions regarding the health and safety of women workers by regulating their working hours and by reducing the burden women have to carry. Recently a special law has been enacted to protect against sexual harassment at the workplace.
Now a day’s women engage themselves in agriculture, plantation, mine beedi, crafts, home based work etc., But unfortunately there are various factors that have caused women lagging behind men like social attitude, traditions, custom, marriage, gender based division labour, lack of confidence, sexual harassment fear.
Women workers at work place face the problem of low and discriminatory wage, exploitative working conditions etc.
It can be concluded that women worker’s conditions cannot be improved unless they are giving special protection and the governments have paid due attention towards miserable working and living conditions of women.
The Constitution of India has given special attention towards the needs of women to enable them to exercise their rights on an equal footing with men and participate in national development. It also aims to creation of an entirely new social order where all citizens are given opportunities for growth and development and where no discrimination takes place on the basis of race, religion, sex, caste, colour, etc.,
However, the proportion of women relative to men in the paid labour force is often considerably lower than the number of men in the labour force. The rural communities are rigidly divided based on gender determined by patriarchal norms which are further perpetuated by religious taboos and cultural prejudices.
Proprietary blog of Karma Global Tech Management LLC
This blog has been collated and compiled by the internal staff of Karma Global with the knowledge and expertise that they possess, besides adaptation, illustration, derivation, transformation, collection from various sources, for its monthly newsletter Issue 11 of May 2023 and in case of specific or general information or compliance updates for that matter, kindly reach out to the Marketing Team – Kush@karmamgmt.com / yashika@karmamgmt.com