More women join the workforce

Indian women have never had it so good. And the latest proof of this comes from the workplace. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the number of women employed in the organised sector (public and private) has risen from 495,000 in 2001 to 502,000 in 2005. And this number is expected to double in the next three years, say experts.

“We are witnessing a growing number of women who are moving to jobs that were until now considered predominantly maleoriented. The private sector is keen on hiring women as they are seen to possess a high degree of interpersonal and analytical skills, creativity and integrity.

The earlier handicap of women dropping out to raise families has been largely mitigated with flexible working hours and this trend will continue to boost their participation in the total workforce. Corporate human resource policymakers are even working on the work-from-home option for women in certain special cases,” explains Manish Sabharwal, Chairman & Co-founder, Team-Lease Services.

At present, the total women workforce in the unorganised sector is around 80 million, and according to Sabharwal, their numbers are expected to grow at the rate of 8-10 per cent. But the data has its flip side, too, and shows the number of people employed in the organised sector, both public and private, as having come down by over 1.3 million between 2001 and 2005.

Says Sabharwal: “For one, of the total 30 million organised sector workforce, around 22 million includes employees in the public sector, and since the hiring of people in the public sector has started tapering off, the impact on the net employment is huge.” Secondly, in the organised sector, there is a massive difference (almost 35 per cent) between the CTC (cost-tocompany) and take-home salary figures of the employees. The salary confiscation is among the highest in the world. Today, with the changing lifestyles, people want major part of their salaries in their hand. “Consequently, a large number of people are making a jump into the unorganised sector, where the take-home salaries are far closer to the CTC figures,” he adds.