In India, due to unprecedented rise in the cost of living, ris-ing prices of commodities, growing expenses on children ed-ucation, huge rate of unemployment, and increasing cost of housing properties compel every Indian family to explore all the possible ways and means to increase the household income. It is also witnessed that after globalization Indian women are able to get more jobs but the work they get is more casual in nature or is the one that men do not prefer to do or is left by them to move to higher or better jobs. Working women refers to those in paid employment. They work as lawyers, nurses, doctors, teachers and secretaries etc. There is no profession today where women are not employed. University of Oxford’s Professor Linda Scott recently coined the term the Double X Economy to describe the global economy of women. The present paper makes an attempt to discuss issues and challenges that are being faced by Indian working women at their respective workstations

Dharmendra MEHTA

Naveen K MEHTA

Rajesh Kumar MEHTA

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Page 62 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  Working Women: Indian Perspective   Dr Dharmendra MEHTA Reader, FMSPtJNIBM, Vikram University, Ujjain (MP) Shardadnm28[at]gmail[dot]com  Dr Naveen K MEHTA  Associate Professor MIT, Ujjain (MP) drnknmehta73[at]gmail[dot]com  Er Rajesh Kumar MEHTA Assistant Professor, RIT, Indore (MP) mehta.rajesh072[at]gmail[dot]com   Abstract: In India, due to unprecedented rise in the cost of living, ris-ing prices of commodities, growing expenses on children ed-ucation, huge rate of unemployment, and increasing cost of housing properties compel every Indian family to explore all the possible ways and means to increase the household in-come. It is also witnessed that after globalization Indian women are able to get more jobs but the work they get is more casual in nature or is the one that men do not prefer to Page 63 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  do or is left by them to move to higher or better jobs. Work-ing women refers to those in paid employment. They work as lawyers, nurses, doctors, teachers and secretaries etc. There is no profession today where women are not em-ployed. University of Oxford’s Professor Linda Scott recently coined the term the Double X Economy to describe the global economy of women. The present paper makes an attempt to discuss issues and challenges that are being faced by Indian working women at their respective workstations. Keywords: Women, Men, Society, Rights, Harassment. JEL: O33.   Introduction  India has a fair record with regard to the enactment of laws to pro-tect and promote the interests of women but women continue to be de-prived of various economic, social and legal rights and privileges. Though they are regarded to be equal partners in progress, yet they remain sub-jected to repression, marginalization and exploitation. Working women in India are faced with lot more challenges than their counterparts. In Indian context, duties of women are mostly re-stricted to their household works. Now with their increasing need for get-ting some income for the family, they have to work all the more hard-er. Since time immemorial, we treat woman as a Goddess but at the same time history tells us that women were also ill-treated. There was no equality between men and women. According to CSSS (Centre for Study of Society and Secularism), it is true of ancient, medieval and early mod-ern times barring some women emancipation movements such as that of Basaweshwara, the 12th century philosopher in Karnataka, who advocat-ed equality, casteless society, status for women, and betterment of the downtrodden women. Special laws were enforced to prevent offensive representation of women in the media and sexual harassment in work-Page 64 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  places. The law also provides women equal rights in the matter of adop-tion, maternity benefits, equal pay, good working conditions etc. But still there are immeasurable challenges and problems faced by Indian women at home and work place as well. Kumar and Kumar (2009) viewed that traditional Indian society viewed the woman's participation in employment outside the home as slightly inappropriate, subtly wrong, and definitely dangerous to their chastity and womanly virtue.  Indian working women face various forms of discrimination including sexual harassment Indian women have to han-dle harassment's at their work place, sometimes just over look things to ensure that their job should remain secure. Majority of Indian women look towards or live in the hope that things will change.  OBJECTIVE AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY  This study focuses on various issues and challenges being faced by Indian working women and the role of government in developing a healthy working environment.  The study is primarily based on qualitative literature survey method. It facilitates in depth analysis of the issues re-lated to by Indian working women. Extensive review of the literature pro-vided useful insight about the topic. The study is based on secondary da-ta, which has been collected from various Reports, Journals, Magazines, Newspapers, Websites and other referenced sources. This methodology also helped in providing a direction to the research to an area which is apparently underexplored.      Page 65 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  REVIEW OF LITERATURE Malhotra et al. (2002) revealed the methodological approaches in measuring and analyzing the empowerment of women. Mahendra (2004) studied the female work participation using occupational data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data set, and compared the same with the 2001 Census and the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data. Todaro and Smith (2006) found that In India, women are the main labor supply in the informal sector since the formal sector is mainly dominated by men. This makes women especially vulnerable since the informal sector doesn‟t provide any social protection.  Waghamode and Kalyan (2014) discussed the problem and perspective of Women Em-powerment, and analyzed the status of women empowerment in India using various indicators like women„s household decision making power, legal Policies for Women Empowerment, Role of Judiciary and also Awareness.  INDIAN WORKING WOMEN: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES The status of Indian women has undergone considerable change but it is a fact the majority of Indian working women are involved in the in-formal sector and not included in official statistics. The informal sector includes jobs such as domestic servant, small trader, artisan, or field la-borer on a family farm. Most of these jobs are unskilled and low paying and do not provide benefits to the worker. On the other hand, according to Azad India Foundation, women account for a small proportion of the formal Indian labor force, even though the number of female main work-ers has grown faster in recent years than that of their male counterparts. The majority of Indian women are still employed in the agricultural and construction sectors and, even there, the wage structure tends to favour men.  Page 66 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  SEXUAL HARASSMENT Working women are often subject to sexual harassment. They face sexual harassment on way on transports, at working places, educational institutions, and hospitals, at home and even in police stations when they go to file complaints. Kamini Dashora (2013) rightly remarked that at the work-place, a working woman experiences sexual harassment from col-leagues and her higher officers. When a woman is praised for her work or promoted on merit, her advancement is often attributed to sexual fa-vours. There have been several cases of sexual harassment recently in-volving even the senior women officials. 34% women in the low skilled category are worried about their well being; 29% in the moderately skilled section and 8% among high skilled workforce. Mriganka Kumbha (2014) stated that Security is another major issue that women face in the workplaces. There are many cases that has been registered where women working at BPO sector have become victims of sexual abuses and rapes while going back home and this is due to lack of proper security. BPO/ITeS is not the only sector with post-sunset shifts. Women nurses have been doing night rounds as also those working in media, airlines, hotels and other service industries. Women employees working in night shift are more vulnerable to such incidents. Nurses, for example, face this problem nearly every day.  According to the ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Com-merce and Industry of India) Social Development Foundation (ASDF), 48% of women who are engaged in the small-scale sector are extremely worried about their safety and nearly 26% in the medium sector and 23% in the large-scale establishments are scared to step out after the sun sets.  According to the ASDF, about 53% working women feel insecure, es-pecially during night shifts in all major hubs of economic activity across the country. Their concern is that safety norms set up by their respective Page 67 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  establishments are not adequate and given the increase in crime, their insecurities and fears are only going up. The National Commission For women (NCW) has recorded 115 com-plaints by women on sexual harassment at the workplace every year be-tween January 2010 and December 2013. Madhya Pradesh registered 38 complaints while UP topped the list with 118 complaints till December, 2013. Southern India remains safer with only 457 harassment complaints in the last 4 years.   GENDER DISCRIMINATION AT WORKPLACE Women are still considered as the vulnerable section of the society and even though they are more efficient, they do not get the same bene-fits as that of a male employee. Indian women are often deprived of pro-motions and growth opportunities at work places. A majority of working women continue to be denied their right to equal pay, under the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.  LACK OF SUPPORT According naaree.com (2013) spouses and parents in law sometimes are unwilling to share responsibilities at home and with respect to child-care. Further, Infosys and Ernst & Young have women employee friendly policies for maternity leave. But in other companies, women are forced to either quit or cut short their break post childbirth, depending on their fi-nancial condition.    Page 68 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  Conclusions Conditions of working women in India have improved considerably in the recent years.  Despite the improvement in their status, they still find themselves dependent on men. They run the risk of being targets of character assassination and harassment if they venture outside these limits. India often gets compared to China in its economic growth, but women make up a mere 24 per cent of India's workforce, estimated to be around 480 million. In China, 70 per cent of the women are part of the labour force. Organizations need to understand that unless they put effective measures that will encourage women to work with little hassle, not just the companies, but our economy will also be benefitted. Lubna Kably and Namrata Singh (2013) highlighted that the new An-ti-Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act and Rules has come into force from December 9, this year, which every company would have to comply. Non-compliance would subject a company to a fine of Rs 50,000. Deutsche Bank India is very proactive in enacting this act and appears to be aware of the fact that provisions of the new rules extend not just to employees but also to external stakeholders interacting with its employ-ees, i.e. customers, vendors, visitors, interns. Similarly, Procter & Gam-ble India seems to be very supportive of the new regulations and advo-cates that this new act will help to further ensure that all workplace envi-ronments are conducive to the success of women in business. According to Mint (2008) companies to have an internal code to en-sure security of women employees and to take measures to ensure they discharge their job in a secure environment. Governments to make it mandatory for companies to install Global Positioning System (GPS) in cabs, not only in call centres and BPO‟s but all industries which engage women in night shifts.  Page 69 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  Other measures can also be taken as-self defense training to wom-en; installing safety devices at the work place; undertaking police verifi-cation of cab drivers, security guards and peons who are deputed on night shifts and setting up efficient complaint redressal systems. The In-dian woman today stands second to none. The society should learn to re-spect her. A radical change is required in the attitudes of the employers, policy makers, family members and other relatives and the public at large.  References [1] Bhuyan, D., Panigrahy. R. L. (2006).  Women Empowerment. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House .  [2] Chandra, R. (Ed.). (2004). Status of Women in India in Social Development in India. New Delhi: Isha  [3] Dashora Kamini (2013) “Problems Faced by Indian Women”, In-ternational Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, Vol, 2 No.8, April, 2013. [4] Gadgil D.R., (1965) “Women in Working Force in India”, Asia Publishing House, Delhi. [5] Hate Chandrakala A. (1969) “Changing Status of Women in Modern India”, Vikas Publication, Delhi, . [6] Kably Lubna and Singh Namrata (2013)” Anti-sexual Harass-ment Policies take Centre-stage”, Times of India (Mumbai Ed) 26 Dec, 2013 [7] Khokan Kumar Bag, Piyal Basu Roy,(March 2012) Changing Face of Women Exploitation in International Journal of Social Science Tomorrow Vol. 1 No. 1  Page 70 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  [8] Kumbha Mriganka  (2014) “Working Women's Problems” http://prezi.com/ accessed on 29 June,2014 [9] Kumar R and Kumar Meenal (2009) “Women Health, Empower-ment and Economic Development: their Contribution to National Economy” Deep and Deep Publications Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. [10] Mahendra,. S. D., (2004) “Female Work Participation Using Oc-cupational Data From NFHS Data Set”, Economic & Political Weekly, February 14. [11] Malhotra Anju, Schuler, S. R., and Boender. C., (2002), “Measuring Women‟s Empowerment as a Variable in Interna-tional Development”, Background Paper Prepared for the World Bank Workshop on Poverty and Gender: New Perspectives. [12] Mazumdar, Maya. Social Status of Women in India, Delhi (2004),  Dominant Publishers and Distributors. [13] Nair, Janaki. Women and Law in Colonial India: A Social History, Delhi (1996), Kali for Women (Published in collaboration with the National Law School of India University, Bangalore), http://www.csss-sla.com Accessed on 20 April, 2014. [14] Todaro, M. Smith, S. (2006) Economic Development. Person Ed-ucation Limited, USA  [15] Waghamode R. H.  and Kalyan J. L.(2014), “  Women Empower-ment in India: A Study”, Reviews of Literature Volume 1 , Issue 7. [16] h t t p : / /w w w . a z a d i n d i a . o r g / s o c i a l - i s s u e s /W o me n -Employment.html Accessed on 22 April, 2014. [17] http://beta.livemint.com/ “53% Working Women in India Fear for their Safety: ASSOCHAM” Oct. 9, 2008 Page 71 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014  [18] http://www.naaree.com, “Workplace Issues and Problems That Indian Women Face Everyday” February 23, 2012, [19] http://www.scribd.com/doc/220656602/Problems-of-Working-Women-in-India Accessed on 25 May, 2014.   

Working Women: Indian Perspective

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Working Women: Indian Perspective

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