Working Environment in Various Industries: A Study on Working Women

In India, most of the working women are employed in the unorganized sector, which includes agricultural laborers, workers in traditional village and cottage industries, migrants to the cities in domestic service, day laborers, street vendors etc. In agriculture, the most important occupation in developing countries, women play an important role in agricultural production, animal husbandry and other related activities such as storage and marketing of produce, food processing etc. Apart from these activities, they spend almost 10-12 hours per day doing household chores (Aadya and Kiran, 2013. Bharara, et. al., 2012. Kumari and Kiran 2012. Madhok, 2005). However, there is gross underestimation of women‟s work in this data. Almost 30-40% of non-working women are actually marginal workers. A large number of these marginal women workers are engaged in occupations in order to supplement family income in various ways such as, collection of firewood and cow dung, maintenance of kitchen gardens, tailoring, weaving and teaching. Moreover inadequate attention has been paid to „unpaid family labor‟ and household work (Richard, and Gelleny, 2007).

The review of literature is pertaining to some of the important articles and survey documented by various researcher regarding the construction industry and women‟s status (Rai, and Sarkar, 2012). The focus of review is on the factors such as gender biasness, sexual harassment, family conditions of the women working in construction industry .The variability in labor absorption in construction workers is much more pronounced for women than for men (Tiwari, Gangopadhy, 2011). It has often been noticed that whenever there is high demand for labor in this sector, the female employment rates is much higher than that of males.

Women workforce constitutes an integral part of total workforce in India. On 31st march 2004, women constituted 19 per cent of the total workforce. The participation of women in the labor force has always been lower than that of men, in the rural as well as urban areas. The work participation rate for women has increased significantly. In 1981, work participation rate for women was only 19.67 per cent which increased up to 22.73 per cent in 1991 and 26.68 per cent in 2001. In the women workforce, women from rural areas are

industries (Abdin, M.J 2008). In the urban areas, women workers are primarily employed in the unorganized sectors. As on the 31st March, 2005 a total number of 50.16 Lacs women employees were engaged in the organized sector, out of which 29.21 lacs (58per cent) in the public sector and 20.95 lacs (42per cent) in the Private Sector. Employment of women in public sector increased by 1.1 percent and by 2.5 percent in the private sector during 2004-2005. The zone wise analysis showed an increase of 8 percent in North-Eastern Zone, followed by Western Zone (5.3per cent), Eastern Zone (3per cent) and Central Zone (1.3per cent) and Northern Zone (1.2per cent). Only Southern Zone registered a marginal dip of 0.8 percent [13].

Source from [13]

Women in mass media and communication are a broad term encompassing many disciplines, skills and professions. Although it is as old as the human age, mass communication is of comparatively recent origin. It began about 200 years ago when Gutenberg started the revolution by establishing the printing press, which helped rapid reproduction of the written word for wide influential of all the mass media in this country. The radio was introduced in a small experimental way in 1924. The first fully indigenous Indian feature film was released as early as in 1913. Indian television began in 1958. Commercial advertisement is as old as the Indian press. Despite this long and impressive history of communication in India, it has led to few openings for women. Journalism has been predominantly male profession. Radio, television and advertising have provided more scope for educated women (Ahmed and Hossain, 2009). Lately, in public relations, film documentaries and marketing and distributive agencies, women have made an entry either as full time or part time professional workers. Careers in communication are concentrated in the urban centers and in fact mainly in the bigger metropolitan centers. Most women prefer editorial work to any other in a newspaper. There are very few women reporters and correspondents in the daily press. Most leading newspapers have a women or children‟s page and these are usually edited and produced by women members of the staff. Contributions to the women‟s page are almost exclusively by the women (Ahsun Habib, 2014). The contents of communication are reflective of the values of society, which in turn, are nurtured and sustained through communication. In India, the dominant stereotype images of women and girls are that of:

• Less competent human beings

• Instruments for exploitation by men

• Key to commercial success in this age of advertising

Human resource development necessitates equipping women and girls with information, knowledge and skills to facilitate their active and equal involvement and participation in the nation‟s development programmes and activities.

In conclusion, the efforts of Union Government in opening new opportunities for women in employment sector by allowing night shifts for women employees is really a bold step and worth applaud able. It would empower the State Governments for allowing the necessary flexibility in employment of women during night shifts in factories. The State Government or any person authorized by it would be allowing employment of women during night only after consulting workers or their representative organizations and concerned employers or their representatives. State Governments may also frame their own rules for giving such permissions. Also the amendment would

Aadya and Kiran, U.V. (2013). Occupational Stress of Women Workers in Unorganized Sector, International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 4(3), pp. 3-13. Abdin, M. J. (2008). “Women Empowerment in Bangladesh”. Social Science Research Network. pp. 1-17 Ahmed, J. U. and Hossain, T. (2009). “Industrial Safety in the Readymade Garment Sector: A Developing Country Perspective”. Sri Lankan Journal of Management, Vol. 14, No.1, pp. 1-13. Bharara, K., Sandhu, P., and Sidhu, M. (2012). Issues of Occupational Health and Injuries among Unskilled Female Laborers in Construction Industry: A Scenario of Punjab State. Kumari, N. and Kiran, U.V. (2012). Occupational profile of child labor in Chikankari Industry, Advanced Research Journal of Social Science, 44 (4), pp. 247-250. Madhok, S. (2005). Report on the status of women workers in the construction industry National commission for women New Delhi. Md. Ahsun Habib (2014). Women in the garment industry of Bangladesh; a paradox of women empowerment and transformation of structural violence, Centre for Peace Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, Master‟s thesis in Peace and Conflict Transformation – SVF-3901, December, 2014. Rai, A. and Sarkar, A. (2012). Workplace Culture & Status of Women Construction Laborers ; A case study in Kolkata, West Bengal, Indian Journal of Spatial Science 3.0 (2) Winter Issue, pp. 44 – 54. Richard, D. L. and Gelleny, R. (2007). Women's Status and Economic Globalization, International Studies Quarterly, 51 (4), pp. 855-876. Tiwari, G., Gangopadhy, P.K. (2011). A review on the occupational health and social security of unorganized workers in the construction industry, Indian Journal of Occupational and Environment Medicine 5 (1).

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