Last week the central government asked states to “systematic deregulation” or “line-by-line reform” of laws that discriminate against female workers. At the National Conference of Secretaries-General (December 13-15), the government highlighted the urgent need to deregulate restrictions on women’s employment. It recommended the introduction of zero-ban policies for working women, similar to practices in Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries.
Current bans in industries such as glass, fat and oil extraction, and pesticides reduce women’s earning potential by 12-21 percent and push them into lower-paying industries such as food processing and paper making.
In more than half of the world’s economies, policymakers have yet to take one obvious step: allowing women to have the same jobs as men.
According to the World Bank 104 economies We still enforce labor laws that limit the types of jobs women can do and the time and place they can work, impacting the employment opportunities of an estimated 2.7 billion women worldwide.
What has been the rule so far?
In India too, it is still women be subject to discrimination are considered job seekers because of their gender. This discrimination is reinforced by the more than 150 laws that prohibit or restrict the employment of women in certain industries.
Many Indian states enact laws restricting women’s participation in factory operations. Twenty-four states have restrictions and 11 states completely ban women from working night shifts. These restrictions are governed by the Factories Act of 1948 and state business and commercial establishment laws and are aimed at protecting women from sexual violence and long working hours. Even where night work is permitted, strict requirements such as requiring a minimum proportion of female workers and supervisory staff during night shifts make compliance difficult and limit employment opportunities.
Some states, such as Bihar and Gujarat, impose additional requirements, such as having inspectors to ensure women’s safety and providing facilities such as shelters and toilets. While there has been gradual easing, with states such as Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh lifting bans on night work for women in factories and commercial establishments, progress remains slow. Many states, including Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal, still have bans restricting women’s employment opportunities on night shifts.
Why was this rule made?
These restrictions result from the assumption that some jobs are too risky for women due to increased risk factors and risk of accidents. For example, the Factories Act and other labor regulations prohibit women from engaging in various industrial activities, including during the day. As of 2022, no state has eased these restrictions, which has prevented women from entering expanding markets and higher-paying professions.
Women’s economic potential is further limited by the fact that they are often excluded from better-paying jobs, for example in traditional industries such as glassmaking and oil and fat processing.
Women are also excluded Employment in certain sectors due to concerns about possible risks to their reproductive health. This limitation is based on the assumption that women’s primary role is reproduction, leading to the belief that performing labor-intensive tasks or operating heavy machinery could impact their ability to fulfill this role.
Regulations that were once considered beneficial now appear increasingly restrictive and threatening.
What happens because of these restrictions?
These unfriendly laws impact both employment opportunities and career prospects for women. When women are excluded from certain industries, their pool of potential employment opportunities shrinks significantly. These restrictions effectively push women into lower-paying, less secure, and less prestigious positions, limiting their ability to achieve economic independence or advance professionally. For example, women are often overrepresented in nursing, education, and service industries, which tend to offer fewer opportunities for advancement compared to positions in engineering, technology, or manufacturing.
Labor laws that do not apply equally to men and women harm women and will ultimately harm men by forcing them to accept lower wages.
Who benefits from this law?
Only corporations and industrialists.
For example, if there are occupational risks in the glass industry, these risks are not exclusive to women. Both men and women can be affected by factors such as high temperatures, inhalation of silica dust, and physical stress from handling heavy materials. However, with appropriate safety protocols and protective equipment, these risks can be mitigated for all workers.
Our current view of organized industries needs to be completely changed. The recognition that a nation’s people are its greatest asset must replace our current reverence for manufactured goods, regardless of how they were acquired.
What needs to be done?
Incorporating gender into workplace health and safety is crucial and requires a multi-faceted approach.
- Legal reforms: Governments must repeal laws that exclude women from certain roles based on outdated assumptions about their abilities.
- Cultural change: Industries and organizations should actively combat gender stereotypes by promoting the idea that women are equally capable of performing physically demanding or technically complex jobs. Gender sensitivity must be an integral part of work design. For example, women often report having to wear ill-fitting protective equipment, such as men’s coveralls or oversized safety shoes, gloves and coats, which can compromise both safety and comfort. A striking example: a female astronaut was unable to participate in the first all-female spacewalk because she lacked a properly fitting medium-sized spacesuit. These failures show that women’s specific needs continue to be ignored in workplace safety policy and equipment design.
- Research & data collection: Instead of banning women from working in certain industries because they are considered dangerous, we need more data about the types of injuries women sustain while working in those industries, as well as research about how specific jobs affect women’s health differently impact and what measures can be taken to mitigate these risks.
If a man’s right to work is inviolable, a woman’s right to work is equally inviolable. Industries need to be humanized and made women-friendly.