Election and Working Women

Election is near and the political parties are wooing voters with all kinds of promises. Election manifestos of all the parties have covered almost all popular demands. Like the way they did in the past, now also the rights and demands of working women are left unaddressed. Though we are equal in number of votes, we face this inequality

With this arises a question, does the Indian women have the freedom of choosing a candidate they wish. In a country where they don’t have the right to choose their education, their career or even their life-partner, most Indian women simply resort to reflecting the decision of the head of the household. But this is rapidly changing with more and more women breaking out of feudal restrictions, yet nobody cares for the unsung heroines of the Indian Growth.

India’s Growth Story:

We are the one’s who contributed to our country’s rise in economy by our participation as a Coder, Banker, Architect, Doctor, Entrepreneur and Leader, we have been steadily and quietly making an impact.

We have been repeatedly promised 33% reservation but no one is ready to implement.

With our effort we are moving forward, we are employed only for lower level work and assuming we can not achieve anything and not allowed to grow up the ladder.

Now election coming. I want to know what you will vote for. Yes, “what” not “who”.

In the last election 48.13% women voted. All believe when women vote in large number that will influence who comes to power.

In last 10 years percentage of women engaged in domestic work rose from 45% to 48%, now more of us are working for home. This is unpaid work. In this 70% of women are burden by household work, child care, limited support system outside home and lack of skilling program and also societal restrictions and it is a wonder that 28% of women work outside their homes in economically, productivity activities.

In the last 5 years some amendments like maternity leave, creche scheme, policy of women’s sexual harassment (POSH) have been brought out. But however there is a long way to go in terms of seeing the outcome these schemes not only in implementation but also in becoming a discipline in society and workplace.

Few questions:

When we go on maternity leave, we are not sure whether we will be reinstated in our position as before in full time roles. Most small and medium enterprises struggle with giving leave.  We should ask for some kind of tax rebate for SMEs retaining women returning from maternity. In most cases after becoming mothers we give-up job for couple of years. After that when we try to re-enter the workplace, we often discover companies are not happy to take back women who drops off from the career ramp.

We can vote for a government that gives incentives for SMEs that encourage and employ women returning to work. While we are forced to move out from our native, because of lack of opportunities, would we not vote for jobs and more livelihood options in or near our native place.

We want to work, but we need reliable creches. Will you not vote for good quality of child care and also that encourages and optimize work from home for all industries not only for IT companies.

35% of Indian companies are not compliant with POSH.  If they are not compliant with POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) their business permissions should be cancelled.

But unfortunately no-one is ready to take care of our demands.

Dear all politicians:

Please be aware that we will hold you to keep these promises even though if you did not mentioned them in your manifesto, we are not going to give up and keep mum.

VASUKI SRINIVASAN

NDLF IT Employee Wing