India’s female labour force participation (FLFP) rate is low and reducing consistently. National Sample survey (NSS) shows that between 1983 and 2011, India’s married women participation in labour force is declining even when the economy grew and fertility fell. Surprisingly, these trends are visible in high skill profession like senior officer, legislator and managers. Among engineers the female unemployment is five times more than men.
Reasons for low FLFP rate
High labour market barrier for socially and economically marginalized communities can increase the transmission of disadvantages across generation. Here we look at why participation of women labour force in economy is on a declining trend even when they have access to better education. These main reasons for decline in FLFP rate :
Women are being overlooked among the unemployed people. Majority of them are outside labour force but are willing to work.
Majority of women generally work in low paying or socially accepted jobs many of them are offshoots of domestic helps and childcare.
Women are still entrusted to look after household duties and families across the social status.
Existing skill and employment generation programme ignore the additional needs and constraint of women worker keeping them in disadvantage as compared to others.
Steps needed to be taken
Over the years both sate and central government have taken several steps to increase the participation of women in labour force so that they can contribute to the nation economy. In doing so they must undertake these policy reform
Strengthening existing policy
Both Central and State government use reservation as a policy to increase the representation of marginalized community in their workforce. Almost all states in India provide reservation to female child. Several survey has increased the SC / ST, OBC representation by around some percentage point. Its been observed that there is increase in female employment in education after operation blackboard reserve the post of teacher for women. These steps change the prejudice and bias against women. But these steps should be well monitor and well targeted.
Redesinging policy strategy
Recently, both states and central government has starting using the policy of Direct benefit transfer that is they are started transfering the social security amount direct beneficary bank account. The government should transfer the benefit amount directly to the bank account of women in the household as it leads to proper utilization of that amount.
Changing policy approach
Policy to increase FLFP and job creation can’t be viewed differently. This means that FLFP fails to create the level playing field for example job creation and skilling programmes often ignores safety, mobility, and other special needs of women which posses a big labour market barrier for women. Skilling and job creation programme should pay special attention to women needs and should break other entry barrier for women.
Influencing the private sector
Firms do not have incentive to support policy that benefit government and society at large. The great example is India’s recent maternity leave policy, where cost of leave is borne by private firms. This has led to low hiring or in some case no hiring of women in private firm which is just unacceptable.
The government should fund the cost of maternity leave to the firm especially for less education and women who hails from weaker and marginalized sector. Laying off women for just their biology it not unique to India this trends have been observed in all the countries around the world.
The way forward
Women need must be addressed and their participation must be increased not just in labour force but also in all sectors of the sectors. The dream transforming in to developed economy cannot be achieved if without the contribution of women. Not just government but private should come forward and implement gender parity and equal payment for equal work in their firms. Women contribution in society can be better understood by Gandhi quote : “If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family (nation)”.
Increasing confirmed cases in India of Coronavirus had caused a drastic disruption in the lives of people. The economy is hit, and a slowdown has been expected. The lockdown has put the life in India to a standstill, and every industry is putting recruitment on hold or laying off workers and making decisions regarding pay cuts. The automotive and IT sectors are suffering the most, as there was a significant dependence on exports and imports. The economy is also being affected by the same, i.e., the supply irregularities due to modifications in international trade policies. We can look for a silver lining in this situation as the Indian industries might emerge as the major suppliers in the areas of pharmaceuticals and textiles. The significant impact is on the people running all these industries. The country is not only facing economic losses but also human resource losses. These are both physical and psychological. This is discussed further by dividing the workforce into three types – a) Daily wage workers, b) Normal Employees, c) Managers/Head of Departments/Companies.
The needs of different workers have been explained using Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory in this article it is assumed that the conditions stated in his theory hold true.
Daily wage workers and urban poor include the people working in the agricultural sector, construction sites, car washers in a typical scenario. But with progress in technologies and companies like Uber, Ola, Zomato, etc. coming up, the delivery boys, cab drivers etc. are also people who might earn a monthly income but are still in a job with little assurance of income. Then there are mechanics, vegetable vendors, etc. with no fixed payment as well. All of the above mentioned and many others have been left with no means to earn a livelihood after the lockdown was imposed to contain COVID-19’s spread in India. The closing hotels and restaurants and little movement on the streets have left many people devoid of income.
For these people, the main aim is to earn a livelihood and secure their income for tomorrow. Their needs can be related to the first and second need defined in the Malow’s need hierarchy, i.e., physiological and safety needs. These people have not moved up and do not crave recognition in the organization as such. Most of them are not even a part of any organization as well. These people will be affected the most since there can be three possible scenarios. First being that they might become too dependent on the government aid being provided to them during the lockdown period. Second, if their locus of control is external, they might end up being depressed and let the suffering take a toll on them. Third, if their locus of control is internal, they might strive to make their situation better after the lockdown period and prepare in advance for any future pandemic.
The people who will breed on government’s aid might become lethargic and lack the motivation to do work again. They will be forced to do work after the conditions normalize, and this will cause them to be dissatisfied because of their mindset of receiving without working. The people who have an external locus of control, which encompasses most of this population because poor people might not always give priority to mindset development, will suffer the most. They will keep blaming the authorities and the external conditions and will let the pandemic disrupt their lives. The people who have an internal locus of control might try to make the best of their current situation while planning for the future.
The normal workers are the ones working in the corporate world and are related to certain organizations and are financially stable. These workers are facing layoff and pay – cut tensions as almost every organization is trying to manage finances with the economy coming
down. Some organizations have decided to not take this path such as DLF limited, which did not take a pay – cut and is not even retrenching the workforce.
Companies outside India like Tesla has decided to do the opposite. It laid off all the non- essential workers till May 4 and even took a pay cut of 10%. Around 3,000 workers were also laid off by Sephora. In India, most of the companies and start-ups are following the same path. Techolution laid off 20 workers in Telangana. Acko, an online insurance firm, laid off 50 employees. Fareportal, a travel firm based in the US, cut off on 500 workers in India.
Bounce, a transportation network company, has decided to take 20-60% pay cuts. All these measures are being taken to ensure that the organizations have finances to run their business when the conditions normalize. Some companies are taking initiatives not to lay off workers and continue working from home, but it is also a challenge only around 5% of their employees have Wi-Fi at their homes.
The people working in these organizations can be classified into three types based on their needs. First are those who still are struggling to fulfil their safety needs in the Maslow need hierarchy. Second, are those who have affiliation and esteem needs that are to be satisfied, and the third category is of those people whose self-actualization needs are too satisfied.
A relation between locus of control and motivation level can be established as people who tend to struggle in fulfilling their safety needs are usually stuck at the external locus of control. Thus, such people will feel unmotivated and distressed during the period of lockdown as their need for security won’t be fulfilled due to the retrenchment process going on in many organizations.
People who require the feeling of belongingness and are out to fulfil their esteem needs might make use of this lockdown period if they have access to the required resources. There can be two categories in these people as well. Some might spend their time leisurely, but the ones with an internal locus of control will try to improve their skillset and use the time productively.
This is also a great opportunity for people who want to satisfy their need for self-actualization as now they can serve the community and do something helpful for society. Some professionals are doing it be it situational or be it out of their sense of duty, for example, the doctors, policeman, etc.
The people who are at managing positions in the organizations have different problems altogether. That set of the workforce is influenced by their type of commitment towards their organization. The people who have an affective commitment towards the firm they work with will be the people who will help these firms to recover after the lockdown. They will be forced to think creatively so that they can sustain their finances and help the company grow. A few examples of such people are Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow the founders of MakeMyTrip have decided to take 100% pay cut and not affect the salaries of their employees.
Then some people have a normative or continuance commitment towards the organization and might not be willing to put in efforts to contribute to the organization. They would probably plan for their secure future and their savings.
Thus, COVID-19 won’t only be impacting the population physically, but it also has left so many people psychological affected. The organizations like Sephora, are also trying to help their workers by assuring that once the conditions normalize, they might consider taking the laid-off workers back. Bridged is also taking initiatives to help employees during this time of self-isolation by making a service available so that people can talk to someone and share their problems.
There is a strong need to balance out the focus on running the organizations and taking care of the employees. Similar initiatives are required to focus and develop the workforce in India because of it one of the things the country will rely on reviving the economy after the pandemic ends.
Some measures that the organizations can take are that they can host free webinars for their employees and even for the laid-off workers to give an insight into the skills that would be required in the coming times.
There can also be awareness spread about how to take care of their mental health along with physical health. Also, there is a need to let the population staying at home right now know how essential it is to develop their skills. The silver lining in this tough situation is that we might end up with a more skilled workforce. This is because people might choose not to get into jobs for some time and pursue higher education.
The main crux of the situation is that it is necessary to address their needs keeping in mind the feasibility aspect as well because that is the essence of organizational behaviour. Human resource cannot be ignored totally to sustain organizations because even if the companies manage to use finances wisely, there would still be a need for employees to ensure future success.
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