WORK PARTICIPATION

It is in the interest of a society to make full and most effective use of its human resources. The full benefit of development can only be realized with people's participation and the economic role of women can not be isolated from the total framework of development (Towards Equality : Report of the Committee on the Status of Women In India, 1974)

As a result of expanding research and advocacy on women's issues , we now have a better understanding of women's contribution to the economy and to society as a whole through the many types of work that they perform in all communities. In this section we look at the economic circumstances and work participation patterns of women of West Bengal, keeping in mind the context of globalization that has been increasingly perceptible in India since the 1990s.

Standard data sources such as our decennial population censuses and National Sample Surveys (NSS) classify and count as workers/employed all those women and men who are reported to be engaged in gainful productive activities (i.e. producing goods and services for sale in the market). We can then derive estimates of the worker-population ratio for total, male and female populations, or the relevant work participation rates (WPRs: i.e. percentage of workers in a given population). Here we have to be aware that though there are large numbers of women workers participating in the productive activity of the household as unpaid family helpers, they are very often missed out due to various shortcomings in the data collection system and this gives rise to the persistent problem of under-counting and 'statistical invisibility' of women .Much of the work women do thus remains unrecognized and under-valued. As the Human Development Report of 1995 points out, this has a deep impact on the status of women in society and the gender blindness of public policy.

Data sources use several types of classification concerning workers. The industrial classification groups workers according to the area or sector of their work ( for example, cultivation, agricultural labour or manufacture) while occupational classification refers to the occupation followed within a given sector (for example occupation of manual labour, which can be in an agricultural farm or in a factory). Workers are also classified as (a) 'main' (or' principal') workers who are found to be employed for a greater part of the year (at least 183 days) or 'marginal' workers who work for a shorter period and who are obviously exposed to greater economic insecurity.

Work participation rates (WPRs) for men and women for West Bengal and selected states based on data from the last two censuses are given Table B 1 and the two Appendix Tables, AB 1 and AB 2 based on NSS data, show the disposition of rural (Table AB 1 ) and urban workers (AB 2) , further classified into the nine sectors of economic activity that comprise our economy. Some of the features of Table B 1 are familiar to us - the substantially lower female work participation rates (FWPRs) as compared to those for males and rural participation rates being generally higher than those for urban areas. Rural and urban FWPRS in West Bengal were 16.8 and 19.1 in 2001; corresponding male WPRs were 44.5 and 47.5.But there are other striking features that draw attention : a clear decline in FWPRs in most of the states - except for small gains in urban female work participation rates .This is consistent with the known loss of employment opportunities associated at least partially with the impact of globalization. In West Bengal rural FWPR for main workers declined from 8.4 to 5.8 per cent between 1991 and 2001.Secondly, both for 1991 and 2001, West Bengal's FWPR was the lowest in India both in rural and urban areas. (This has been a historical trend and has been discussed in other works of the author.[i])

An important reason behind the conspicuously low levels of economic activity pertaining to West Bengal Women lies in the ubiquitous problem of undercounting of women's work, as mentioned earlier; however, when we look at women's work more closely, it will be evident, as in Table B 2, that women are in fact involved in a whole range activities that contribute significantly to the economic welfare of the household. This information is based on special enquiries periodically undertaken by the NSS and addressed to women engaged in 'domestic duties' - women who are not formally counted as 'workers'. The interesting point about Table B2 is that as many as 95 per cent of rural women in West Bengal not acknowledged as workers are actually involved in resource generating activities that help sustain their families. Chart B 1 also illustrates the wide varied ambit of rural women's work, ranging from agricultural and ancillary economic activities to those necessary for maintaining the household.

Participation of West Bengal women in economic activities as main workers and marginal workers vis-à-vis the all-India situation during 1981-2001 is illustrated in Table B 4, which also draws attention to a worrisome trend - the growing marginalisation among women workers. Women's comparatively greater dependence on short duration/uncertain/marginal work is also brought out in the district level data on work participation shown in Table B 4A.

The next two Tables (B5 and B5A) show the distribution of main workers among men and women according to three main livelihoods ( as cultivator, agricultural labour and household industry) for West Bengal separately and for selected states and India

As we have seen above in Table B 5, a remarkable trend in the sphere of work and employment has been the rise in the proportion of women engaged in household industry from 11 to 18 per cent during the last two decades, the comparable increase for men being from 3 to 4 per cent. This diversification can be seen both as a means and an end of the process of development, including a shift from agriculture to non-agriculture. But, as the West Bengal Human Development Report points out, " ..there are doubts about the sustainability and continued viability of some of the activities, either from an ecological or economic perspective. "[i] Table B 7 provides an idea of the distribution of women workers between the public and the private sectors of the organized sector as a whole.

During the last decade, on an average, only about 15 per cent of women could find a foothold in the organised sector , which has to observe certain basic norms regarding social security and labour welfare and West Bengal is not an exception. Table B 7 provides state-wise information on women's access to employment in the public and private components of the organized sector in 1991 and 1999.It will be noticed that in contrast to other states, women's employment in the private sector shows a decline during the 1990s. So far as employment under the state government is concerned, in 1999 about 63,000 women employees constituted about 17 per cent of all state government employees but their share in the Group A (highest category) jobs was only 10 per cent. [i]

Women working in the unorganized/informal sector

As in the rest of the country, an overwhelming proportion of West Bengal women are dependent on the informal/unorganized sector as contrasted to the organized sector , with mandatory provisions for social security and labour welfare, The informal sector comprises of a multitude of small units characterized by low skill, low productivity and low income and large numbers of women crowding this sector are deprived of basic entitlements such as minimum wages, maternity benefits, compensation for health hazards etc. Many such women are home-based workers , engaged in occupations such as sericulture, embroidery work, work connected with textile production, bidi making etc. Table B 8 provides some state level information on women's involvement in the non-agricultural component of the informal sector. In West Bengal, more than 4 lakh women comprise 18 per cent of the total persons engaged in own account enterprises while 2.5 lakh comprise 15 per cent of total employment in establishments.

The NSSO regularly collects wage data during its various Rounds , apart from other government. agencies such as the Ministry of Labour. Some idea of the average level of agricultural and on-agricultural wages for men and women in West Bengal and the pronounced gender gap in wages will be found in Table B 9 below. This gender gap is also evident in recent wage data published by Govt. of India's Labour Bureau.[i]In rural West Bengal daily wages for men for transplantation work were reported to be about Rs. 52 while comparable wages for women - who are acknowledged to specialise in such work - amounted to about Rs. 49. Women's wages for weeding were at the same level ( Rs. 49 but for men they went up to Rs. 53.70. Average daily wages for unskilled labour were Rs. 51.40 for men and Rs. 46.90 for women. However, the gender-based wage differentials appeared to be even greater at the all-India level (e.g. male and female wages for unskilled labour were reported to be Rs. 59.83 and 44.92 respectively).

Appendix Table AB 5 shows that according to Planning Commission estimates, daily status unemployment rates among women in West Bengal have been quite high in comparison with male unemployment rates as also with female unemployment rates in most other states - to the extent of 25 per cent of the female labor force in rural areas and 13 per cent in urban areas. The corresponding rural and urban unemployment rates for India as a whole were 7 and 9.4 per cent respectively.

District-wise estimates of child labour will be found in Appendix table AB 4. Fortunately, for the state as a whole, the numbers are not very large : 2.7 per cent among girls and 5.6 per cent among boys in the age group 5- 14 years were reported as child workers in the census of 1991. The corresponding all India figures were 5.1 and 5.7 per cent . In certain states - such as Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka - these proportions were higher, going up to 8-10 per cent [i]. However, as we have already noted, census counts would not reflect all the work that a girl child might be required to perform, particularly in low income rural families; for instance, a survey conducted in 1993 in some villages in Medinipur and Howrah districts of West Bengal reported that " A girl child's work is considered non-productive and non-remunerative by the men folk in her family…on an average a girl child performs 30-35 types of tasks throughout the day, specially if school is closed or if she is a drop out and her work load increases during the peak season. [ii]"

Finally, in Table B 10 we present state wise figures regarding educational attainment (or lack of it) among women workers, with more details in Appendix Table AB 5. The trends are clear : (i) more than 70 per cent of women workers in rural Bengal were reported without education (ii) urban areas are more advanced regarding prevalence of women workers with secondary level and higher level education; (iii) West Bengal women workers do not feature among leading states such as Kerala, Mizoram or Tamil Nadu and lack of elementary education continues to be a serious barrier to skill formation and access to better employment opportunities particularly in the context of globalization.