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UNORGANIZED WOMEN WORKERS IN KARNATAKA ; PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

Smt. Mangalamma.M

Asst.Prof. in Sociology, Govt First Grade College, Jayanagara, Bangalore . India

Abstract

Unorganized sector comprises of major part of Indian Economy. In unorganized sector, those enterprises and employments are involved which are unregistered under any legal provision. More than 90% man power contributes in unorganized sector globally. In, Indian scenario, 86% of human resource is employed in unorganized sector. 91% of women workers in unorganized. The female work participation rate in Karnataka has increased nearly four and half times i.e. from 4.4 in 2001 to 18.7 percent (main worker 11.9 percent, marginal worker 6.8 percent) in 2011, and rural female work participation is 2.25 times that of urban female work participation. Women working in the informal sector are not included in the official statistics and their work is undocumented and considered as disguised wage work, unskilled, low paying and does not provide benefits to the worker. India was one of the first countries in the world to give women the right to vote. The Indian constitution is one of the most progressive in the world and guarantees equal rights for men and women. Despite the advances women have made in many societies, women's concerns are still given second priority almost everywhere. They continue to face discrimination and marginalization both subtle and blatant and do not share equally in the fruits of development. Their contribution is not given due credit. Women workers in unorganized sector lag behind the males in terms of level and quality of employment. Such women, when they have to perform dual of both outside employment in harsh and hostile working conditions and manage their homes, come across problems, which needs a loud hearing. These women are often illiterate, unskilled socially backward and economically weak which often hide their work participation. Poverty, lack of access to education and inadequate health facilities are their major problems. Women workers contribute substantially to the growth of Karnataka. These workers continue to labour under many severe problems. These women workers working in unorganized sector are generally exploited. In this paper an attempt is made to discuss about problem of women workers in unorganized sector and some act and laws of government to prevent women workers from exploitation and to find out measures to empower the women.

Key words: Insecurity, Program, Problems, Policies, Unorganized Sector , Women

INTRODUCTION

Employment insecurity is a pressing problem for millions in India, but the most severely affected are the unorganized sector workers. This sector is characterized by the temporary, seasonal and changing nature of employment often resulting in long periods of unemployment, absence of a fixed employer-employee relationship, failure of wages to meet minimal requirements, poor work environment, long working hours, irregular incomes, etc. which contribute to poor employment security of the workers.

Our Indian constitution assures equality of men and women. Besides of so many efforts from past years, female section of society is deprived in compared to male section. They are not given first priority in social and economic decisions in her own family. According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, women are involved in doing 67% work of world; still they are socially and economically deprived. They are receiving only 10% of the universal income and have 1% part in global assets. This discrimination also persists in their work place in unorganized sector. In informal sector, women workers don’t get same wages for same nature of work for same hours done by men. They are exploited at workplace. They are some acts i.e. The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008, Domestic Workers Welfare and Social Security Act, 2010 etc. but due to their improper implementation, women workers are forced to work and live in miserable conditions in unorganized sector

Women in unorganized sector and their problems

The Organized sector workers are distinguished by regular salaried jobs with well-defined terms and conditions of employment, clear-cut rights and obligations and fairly comprehensive social security protection. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacksmost forms of social protection. Having no fixedemployer, these workers are casual, contractual,migrant, home based, own-account workers whoattempt to earn a living from whatever meager assetsand skills they possess.National Commission on Labour (1966-69) has definedunorganized labour as those who have not been ableto organize themselves in pursuit of common objectiveson account of constraints like casual nature ofemployment, ignorance and illiteracy, small andscattered size of establishments and position of powerenjoyed by employers because of nature of industry.

The unorganized sector is characterized by thepresence of factors viz. long hours of work, wagediscrimination of men and women, lack of job security,no minimum wages, lack of minimum facilities at workplace, ill-treatment, heavy physical work and sexualexploitation etc.The laboring women generally work in unorganizedsector. They are outside the reach of Protective LabourLaws and Trade Union Organizations. They are notoffered fair wages and decent terms of work. There arehardly any opportunities to improve their incomebecause in this sector, females work generally aslaborers in unskilled occupations, do traditional workas domestic servants. The process of globalization,export oriented industrialization and relocation ofindustries from the developed to developing countriesalso lead to increase in women workers in unorganizedsector.

The nature of women’s work ranges from wageemployment or self-employment, family labour andpiece rated work. The prevalence of women workersin urban unorganized sector is significant in number.They are engaged in activities like domestic work,construction work, small trades like brick making, coirand basket weaving, household industries etc. In ruralunorganized sector women are engaged in agriculturalactivities, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries etc. In thepresent paper the status of women domestic workers,construction workers and agriculture laborers wasstudied through an empirical study.Most of the domestic workers and construction workersare primarily women who have migrated from rural areasfor economic gain. The influx of women workers to thecities for non-farm employment has saturated theexisting sectors and is one of the main reasons for herextreme exploitation. Hardships of city life, absence ofbasic amenities and exploitation of these women byemployers have added to their misery.The condition of women agriculture labour in rural areasis no better. Most of them do not have year roundemployment. They suffer vital disadvantages comparedto men in their search for employment opportunities,lower real wages, increased uncertainties andirregularities of employment. There are legal provisionsto protect their rights. Such working conditions are ahurdle in their overall development leading to underperformance and not allowing them to raise theirproductive capacity in that very profession also.

Reasons of Women’s Engagement and Problems faced by Women Labourers

Poverty was the main reason for women’s engagementas laborers in construction and agriculture. To support the family they took up work inconstruction sector whereas inadequacy of husband’sincome was an added cause for women to work asagricultural laborers. However women took up domesticwork primarily because of inadequate income of thehusband and poverty.that the major problem faced by mostof the women laborers in unorganized sector was lackof benefits. Among construction laborers lack ofbenefits (95%), excessive burden of work (90%) and fatigue (89%) were the three main problems faced bythem. Among agriculture laborers wage discrimination(100%), seasonal nature of employment (100%) andlack of benefits (96%) were the main problems andamong domestic workers lack of benefits (72%), lackof job security (64%) and lack of skill and knowledge(58%) were the three main problems faced by them. It was also found that there was total lack of jobsecurity as well as admissibility of social securitybenefits. There was excessive exploitation of thewomen labour, resulting in long working hours,unsatisfactory working conditions, and occupationalhealth hazards. These are the principal employers withmassive capital outlay at one end and hundreds of construction workers with highly insecure subsistencelevel of living on the other end. In between is a wholehierarchy of intermediaries, contractors and subcontractorsso that there is no direct link betweenemployer and worker.

The invisibility of the workers andspecifically of the women labour has left the womento work in this industry with terms of employment,types of work, housing and living conditions determinedby nature of recruitment. It was observed that they areforced to live in areas with inadequate facilities,stressful living conditions and often in slums which aredeprived of basic services, unhygienic conditions, poordrainage and sanitation, regular garbage collection, exposed to environmental and health hazards. Therehad been no educational facility for the children ofmigrant labor and employee-employer relations wereunsympathetic.Women play a pivotal role in agriculture. They assistthe bread earner of the family by adding to the familyincome as wage earners.

However, the traditionalviewpoint still prevails particularly in rural areasassigning a secondary place to women. The findingsof the study reveals that in agriculture sector themajority of the women laborers (66%) belonged to lowercastes and all of them were residents of Karnataka.There are certain types of agricultural operations, whichare mainly done by women laborers for exampleharvesting, transplanting, weeding and thrashing. It isassumed that all female jobs need less skill and lessstrength however, such operations are much morestrenuous and backbreaking. Such a great burden ofwork does not lead to sufficient amount of wages. Even when men and women perform the same task, the malelaborers receive Rs. 20 to 40 more than the femaleworkers. They work for longer hours, receive low wages, because of low level of skills, knowledge, illiteracy andignorance. The study revealed that agricultural laborersface many problems viz. poor living conditions, lackof knowledge of proper sanitation, hygiene, lack ofsocial security benefits and exploitation by the employers. The study also proved that relation betweenemployer and the laborers was not harmonious andcongenial. The poverty and landlessness push the poorrural women to do low paid jobs in agriculture asalternative supplementary occupations are just notavailable in rural areas. Due to low wages, most of thewomen workers reported that they were incapable tomaintain or fulfill the necessary requirements of theirfamilies hence they borrow money from the moneylenders. In this way they get trapped in the cycle ofdebt trap. One of the most important features ofagricultural women laborers’ was that they areseasonally employed and after the season they remainunemployed. Also with the introduction of new labourreplacing machinery there has been a reduction inemployment opportunities, particularly for womenbecause they are unskilled and hired only for manualwork.With more and more women stepping out of their homesto contribute to family’s income the demand fordomestic help is on the rise. These domestic helps arehired for doing all kinds of household chores likecleaning the house, cleaning utensils, washing clothes,cooking food, baby sitting and running