See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/357431649

Women and the employment sector in India – A Review

Article · December 2021

DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2021.12.3.0996

CITATIONS READS

0 1,496

2 authors:

Ce Dr Sumanta Bhattacharya Bhavneet Kaur Sachdev

National Academy of Legal Studies and Research 102 PUBLICATIONS 16 CITATIONS
226 PUBLICATIONS 115 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Ce Dr Sumanta Bhattacharya on 20 July 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Women and the employment sector in India – A Review
Dr. Sumanta Bhattacharya 1, * and Bhavneet Kaur Sachdev 2
1 MAKAUT, Public–Foreign-Defence Policy, MPI (oxford University) ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2563-2787.
2 Political Science hons (Calcutta University), ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9156-0086.

World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 12(03), 137–142

Publication history: Received on 17 October 2021; revised on 03 December 2021; accepted on 05 December 2021

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2021.12.3.0996

Abstract
Women constitute half of the population in India women development and empowerment is the pillar to enhance the
economy of India. If India includes 50 % of the women into the workforce the annual growth can reach from1.5 % GDP
to 9 %. Just because half of the population is kept away from the workforce, our development is slow. Gender inequality
is the main drawback of the Indian society, which has made India remained underdeveloped in many ways. Traditional
values and orthodox mentality has never allowed India developed internally. Poverty and hunger is also the product of
gender inequality in India, women discrimination at the workplace, there is less payment for more work no social
security they are becoming victims of sexual exploitation where as there are some states which are very safe for women
like Pune Chandigarh where the police is in charge of making the city safe for women and girl. It is very necessary for
the starting to promote gender equality at the school level, people should taught on sex education, violence, sexual
violence, there should be more coed schools where both girls and boy study together strict rules and regulation in the
society with women police available for the safety of women.

Keywords: Women; Safety; Gender equality; Poverty; Workplace; Discrimination

1. Introduction
A country can be developed only when all its citizen equality participate in the economy. India is a developing economy
5th largest in the world but poverty and inequality inside the nation has kept it behind of other countries in term of
development where the Indian women are not part of the economy if India wants to develop and growth it require the
women workforce which will not only make the work efficient but double the GDP grown in a few years. Today in the
21st century in the age of liberalization, globalization women in India are still at home doing household work and kept
out of the mainstream economy. Agricultural which is the key source of economy growth. Rural constitute a majority of
the populace and 50% of the people are employed there it was after the Industrial revolution that men went to the urban
sector in such of jobs and left the fields in the hand of women to look after and that’s where women entered the economy.
With growing time women have been working in the field they are working in the horticulture industry the government
have launched where programmes for the empowerment of women they have their community kitchen gardening
together women are working in the village non agricultural sector we see girls are being educated and women been
digitalized through computer skills they are being trained in handicraft business jewellary making and other activities.
Urban sector which is more of a westernized model have a modern view and a progressive attitude over the years
women have entered the employment sector in urban India today maximum women living in the urban area are
educated there are working many have started their own start up cooking has become now a professional job also we
see women working as chef in various hotels they are part of hotel management no more the women sit at home they
are digitally educated majority of them go to universities we even have women running big Industries ruling the nation.
By including women into the job sector we have been successful in reducing poverty in India. Gender inequality is the

 Corresponding author: Dr Sumanta Bhattacharya

MAKAUT, Public–Foreign-Defence Policy, MPI (oxford University) ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2563-2787.

Copyright © 2021 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0.
 World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 12(03), 137–142

major cause of Indian economy not growing There were many countries apart from India which got Independence at
the same time but they are way developed than us. South Korea Japan, Singapore all these countries are developed but
India is still behind even Bangladesh has improved and preforming better than India which women working. Bangladesh
garment industry has provided employment to thousands of women their present prime minister is a women and for
the first time Bangladesh per capita growth was more than India. India traditional and orthodox thinking needs to end
to bring about a change and economy development in the country.

1.1. Research Methodology

For the purpose of this exploration, I have used a amalgamation of two of the archetypical social sciences research tools
application–as they are authentic and brilliant method to assemble statistics from multiple appellant in an methodical
and convenient way. Question were asked to the common youth, public policy Analyst urban people, slum dwellers,
survey, interviews –consisting of several interrogation which were dispersed among representative of each contender
group.

Objective of the Research Paper

The main areas of exploration in this paper incorporates

 Women safety and women at the workplace.

 Gender inequality a problem in India Analysis.
 What is the future of Urban women and how we can eliminate gender inequality in India.

2. Literature Review
India GDP growth is 1.5% annually if 50 % of the women enter the workforce it can reach to 9 % annually. India ranks
120 when it come to female labour participation. Gender inequality has been one of the crucial problem in India since
ages where women have been considered as a machine of production and reproduction. Human rights which are
universal are inaccessible to women in India there are kept within the four walls of a room unknow about what is
happening outside. However with rising women communicate with other people in the neighbourhood by which they
come to know about a new world. Over here the gender inequality indicates the discrimination made in the health
economic political and education sector it is after years of fight struggle and women movement which finally allowed
women to gain education be a part of politics and enter the labour force it was during the time of Independent when
thousands of women took part in the freedom struggle there have many women freedom fighters who played a
noteworthy note who went door to door fighting there were these women who fought for women education and started
schools and college of girl education there have been social reformers feminist movement to bring women into the
forefront of the society even when the women were treated as Queen we had Indian women has freedom fighters there
was a time when women were educated in India and have all the benefits India was rich and women was a part of the
economy growth. After Independence women status again deteriorated and they went back staying at homes with rapid
urbanization and modernization it is the only the infrastructure that has developed and changed the traditional
orthodox mentally has continued till today which has kept women away from the working sector. People will broad
mentality have led women move out of their homes and find a place for themselves in society we can see women being
part of the sports there are shooters in the army women are IAS, IPS officers, there are freely travelling alone across the
world they drive themselves you see today on the road women driving scooter going to work being Independent. But
still the number of women into the workforce is reducing day by day which will have an effect on the over all economy.
It might bring out per captia income, this reducing is happening because of the lack of safety and security at different
workplace, transportation for women. However many states have been successfully in making the city safe for women,
but then there a lot of states where women are illtreated in the society, particularly women belonging to the lower caste
like Dalits.

3. Findings
Even if India develops there is modernization and infrastructure development and a new luxury lifestyle that doesn’t
mean the mentality of a society change or there is a change in the outlook of people. In India ethics morality and
traditional view are like the lifeline of people. Even after 1000 years of living generation after generation since the Vedic
age ha continued with this varna system caste system women are to be kept at home what is the sense of urban
development and adopting a western style of living when you can bring a change in your though procedure. In the age
of technology revolution people are adopting artificial intelligence and looking at the world with great hopes the Indian
society is living with the old customs and backwardness where as this rituals and mindset has been set by a few

138
 World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 12(03), 137–142

individuals who have passed away, this is one of the biggest reason India has remained underdeveloped Corruption lack
of political leadership adds to the problem, where rituals and customs are more important than the laws and this is why
in many cases in spite of some many laws for the protection of women are made by the government, we don’t see a
decrease in the cases, because people have been practicing this since days,the problem is with the cultural in India.
Women are facing sexual harassment in the workforce, they are given money and told to keep their month closed, in
most of the cases women are blamed for this kind of attitude because of their dress sense, no one blames the male
counterpart.

Figure 1 Indicates how many women are employed and women employed and performing domestic duties

Figure 2 Female labour Force and a decline of women workforce

Women are not part of the decision making process when it is something related to the profit of the company because
it is believed that a male can handle it in a better way and the women is not even given a chance. There is unequal pay
of women for the same job and same efforts. Some women are told to work later at night, but what about their social

139
 World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 12(03), 137–142

security, how will they travel back safety, there is less women as police in the railways station area, no traffic, less street
light above al restrictions from the family, so how can you expect a girl to work.Today only 7% of the women in India
have paid jobs.this is for the cases of private sectors.

Most of the people living in the urban area not rich, the poor and the vulnerable section constitute a huge population,
where women have to work to feed their family, just a male work is not enough, these women have to work as domestic
labourers or they will get work in the construction sites or start their own business as street vendors, in Delhi 30 % of
the street vendors are women, in every state /city who find women selling utensils s, clothes, running small shops, they
have their own food stalls to earn minimum amount for their family living, many a times they are exploited and even
become a victim of sexual violence at their workplace, Urban area is modernized but still extremely unsafe for women.
During this COVID-19 period every min there has been a case reported on a crime against women, urban women have
reported this crime as they are educated and know about it, the cases reported where more than the cases reported in
the past 10 years, this shows that how unsafe the country as a whole easy, it is not that living in the urban India, a women
is protected, it differs from society, community and the mentality of the people along with how strict is the rules and
regulation of a country. For instance in Mumbai and Pune, a women can easily travel mid night there is not fear and
tension, because of the lifestyle and modern attitude of people same is for Pune, where people have night life in a
comfortable and secured way, people take late night shift and many women are also part of it working in the IT hubs,
Chandigarh is also very safe for women, there is complete security of women at night and day time, women can easily
travel later at night and the state government and police take full charge of women security.

Figure 3 Development and Growth in women employment over the years

Figure 4 Indicates what are Problems faced by women to became a part of the employment sector

Rape is very common in India, many people find it unsafe to travel to India, no women knows whether she will be able
to return back home safely or not the time she leave home, this has also led many women to leave the workforce. In

140
 World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 12(03), 137–142

order to double the economic of India it is very necessary to bring in gender equality and provide women with ample
opportunities and maintain safety. Security should be maintained at every point for women. A broad outlook and a
liberal and progressive nature needs to be adopted in the 21st century,else India will continue to remain an
underdeveloped country and the growing economy will also minimize if half of the population in India is kept away
from the work force.

Urban India doesn’t provide much benefits to the women, it is only that part of the society where people have broad
thinking power and treats women equally with them, that were development has happened in India.

4. Way Forward
It is important to bring women into the employment sector for over all economic development and sustainable living,
Gender inequality should be eliminated and it should be mandatory to provide education to women up to college.Free
education to adult women with decent work for all. Gender inequality should be eliminated with equal education to be
provided in all schools, where the teacher process needs to be changed. Students in their school age should be taught
about sex education, gender, violence and everything. There should be provided with liberal idea and critical thinking.
There should be more coed schools where children will learn together this will also work to remove gender inequality
as both are learning the same thing together, there will a sense of equality, the foundation has to be made strong to
bring a positive change, both in the rural and urban culture. Women should stand up for themselves and police should
be made available during emergence.More women police should be allocated for women safety at railway stations, in
traffic zones to make India critically developed.We require social laws in our country, the current laws protecting
women are not enough to allow women to freely travel at night. We need to safeguard women rights in the employment
sector. We need to motivate more women start ups and entrepreneurship into the mainstream society with special loan
and insurance scheme for women empowerment and running of Business. Today many women have started working
from home, The pandemic situation has brought many women into the employment sector with the new slogan of work
from home, a positive sign.

5. Conclusion
We need to bring women into the limelight and provide them their human rights which deserve. Women should be
provided with opportunity equal to men, Gender equality and strict rules and regulation should be introduced, the
central and the state government should collaborate and work to bring in gender equality and work toward the safety
of women in the cities, Rapid urbanization should also bring a rapid change in the mindset and not only in the
infrastructure and development projects, In order to amplify the economy of India and make India a developed country
and attain Sustainable Development goals it is necessary to make women educated, healthier, economically and
politically powerful.

Compliance with ethical standards

Acknowledgments
B.K Pattanaik: MA in economics, MA in Human resource Management, Professor at Indira Gandhi National open
University.

Dr Heera Lal: IAS, Additional Mission Director at National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh, Advisor-Model Gaon Honorary.

Disclosure of conflict of interest

The authors hold no conflict of Interest.

References
[1] Marie Correa Fernandes, Victor WA Mbarika, Brandon K Dumas, Chanik Jones. Gender and Development : A
Literature Review. KAD International. 2015.
[2] International Labour Office, Empowering women in the Rural Economy.
[3] Annette Dixon, Women in India’s Economic Growth, The World Bank. 2018.
[4] UN India, Gender equality: Women’s Economic empowerment.

141
 World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 12(03), 137–142

[5] Sona Mitra. Work Patterns among urban women in India: Have there been enough jobs in a high growth regime.
The Indian Journal of Labour Economics. 2008; 51(4).
[6] Namrata Gupta. Gender inequality in the work environment: A Study of Private research organization, Equality
Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. 2017; 36(3).
[7] Nisha Srivastava. Dynamics of Gender inequality and women’s work in India: Key issues for discussion and
Further research, FEDI.
[8] Sarwade Walmik Kachru. Gender inequality & workplace harassment of Women in India, Arts and Humanities
Open Access Journal. 2019; 3(6).
[9] Klaveren M, Tijdens K, Williams HM, Matin Ramos N. An overview of women ‘s work and employment in India.
Research Gate. 2010.
[10] Women and work: How India Fared in IWWAGE. 2020.

Author’s Short Biography

Dr. Sumanta Bhattacharya is a Research Scholar at MAKAUT and a Public-Defence-

Foreign Policy Analyst. He has 180 research papers, 27 Patents and 27 Book chapters, holds
the record for maximum number of degree courses, have won International and national
awards for his excellences in Education and Policy Making.

142

View publication stats