Table 1: Percentage Distribution of Workers by Activity Status

REVIEW OF WOMEN’S STUDIES

the fact that these bodies backed their observations with strong legal recommendations to rectify the disadvantages that, women in particular, suffered because of their overwhelming presence in the category of unpaid workers, the system continues to function in the “business as usual” mode.

The 1974 Committee was constituted almost 25 years after independence and its report entitled “Towards Equality” could be regarded as the first comprehensive account of the status of women in India using a range of social, economic, political and legal parameters to contextualise women’s position within the polity and economy of independent India. The 1974 Committee immediately realised the almost complete non-existence of meaningful data on the unorganised sector, where bulk of women work and continues to work till date. Its observations on the difficulty of arriving at credible numbers of those employed are reproduced below:

Having noted the above, the 1974 Committee, however, did not specifically address the theme of unpaid work in its recommendations for action, which were otherwise very elaborate; much emphasis was placed on extending the coverage of existing legislation, strengthening the administrative infrastructure in-charge of implementing labour policies and the like.

Fourteen years after the 1974 Committee, the rationale for the constitution of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector (hereafter 1988 Shramshakti Report) by the government of India was the following:

It is interesting that the 1988 Shramshakti Report merely mentions in passing that the government had appointed a committee on the status of women which had “made a comprehensive study of the problems of all women” (p 7) without engaging with crucial questions such as: did the government that had earlier appointed the 1974 Committee formally accept the committee’s report? If yes, what, if any, were the actions initiated based on recommendations of the 1974 Report? If not accepted, why not? In hindsight, reflecting on such questions is important for feminist praxis. While the 1988 Shramshakti Report has dwelt considerably on the theme of physically mobilising and organising the labouring women, no thought has gone into why, simultaneously, mobilisation of academics/intellectuals to hold government accoun table for not engaging with reports of its own committees and commissions, could not have constituted an equally important mode of action. This is particularly so since, a significant dimension of the problem earlier flagged by the 1974 Committee, had to do with concepts, contexts, definitions and estimates of the unorganised economy, where hardly any labour laws apply, but in which the bulk of the labour force ekes out a living. Nevertheless, in its own way, the 1988 Shramshakti Report has also engaged with the dimensions of the category, self-employed, through an examination of NSSO data.

A dimension of unpaid work covered by Shramshakti 1988 is the “proportion of females engaged in domestic duties along with free collection of goods”, (that is NSS activity Code Status – 93) and “proportion of females attending domestic duties only”, (that is NSS Activity Code Status – 92) using NSSO 38th Round data pertaining to 1983. Further, the report also provides information on the percentages of women (among those usually engaged in household duties) willing to accept work, part or full time, if the same is made available to them at their residence. Similar information is

provided by NCEUS 2008 for 2004-05. What becomes immediately clear from comparing 1983 and 2004-05 data is that the percentages of women reporting domestic duties as principal status, and, further, the proportions of women combining domestic duties with a number of other activities that help their households save incomes, remains substantial between the two time periods. We illustrate with data relating to rural women: 53% of rural women (age 15-59 years) in 2004-05 against 42% of rural women (age five years and above) in 1983, reported being “usually engaged in domestic duties”. Similarly, in 2004-05, of the rural women reporting domestic duties as their principal status, 72% were willing to accept work at home on part-time basis, while 23% were willing to accept work on full-time basis. In 1983, 61% of the rural women (reporting domestic duties as principal status) were willing to accept work at home on part-time basis, 30% on full-time basis, and 9% wanted work occasionally. Both reports also give details of the type of work that women were willing to take up at home.

The chapter on recommendations in the 1988 Shramshakti R eport begins thus: … Women’s work as home-makers must be recognised as social/economic production. For, when women fetch water, gather fuel and fodder or tutor their children, they are performing services in the absence of which market services would have to be purchased. Only if this recognised, can other consequences flow from it such as broader definition of women’s work. The National Commission recommends that all subsequent data collection efforts should enlarge the definition of women workers to include all such activities paid and unpaid performed within the home or outside as an employee or on own account (pp 249-50). The report has a further section entitled, “Support Services and Other Programmes”, the preamble to which states:

The 1988 Shramshakti Report no doubt carries forward the agenda of elaborating on the theme of unpaid work by women in terms of recognising both women’s unpaid work as family helpers, and domestic unpaid work. It also backs up the recognition of unpaid domestic work with recommendations aimed at reducing domestic drudgery. Nevertheless, the fact that, the component of large numbers of women employed as unpaid family labour continue to remain beyond the reach of any protective labour legislation, does not merit a specific attention.

Sundaram’s explanation. On the contrary, Hirway’s probe brought out the limited ability of NSS Surveys to capture the changing profile of work and workers in the economy. To quote Hirway:

Rural Urban NSS-WPR (1993-94) (1999-2000) Rural

to the fore some interesting debates among

Haryana 45.6 18.8 46.2 17.7 50.2 10 57.3 56.16 11.7 37.36 11.1 38.46

economists anxious to interpret and explain

MP 52.5 27.17 51.2 30.7 47.3 12.1 60.5 49.43 7.96 22.26 9.27 18.73

the phenomenon (Sundaram 2001a and

Gujarat 54.6 26.39 57.1 35.5 52.9 12.5 60 44.17 5.42 17.78 2.92 8.67 2001b; Hirway 2002). While Sundaram at-Orissa 52.9 20.48 52.7 23.3 45.7 11.6 59.9 55.47 7 34.99 7.18 32.17

tempted to attribute the declines to “benefi-Tamil Nadu 56.6 34.2 56.6 38.1 55.2 20.1 66.1 50.25 9.47 16.05 9.5 12.15

cial rise in student-population ratios”, Meghalaya 59.1 42.88 55.6 42 39.3 19.7 56.2 52.45 -2.83 9.57 0.62 10.45 Combined states /all India 52.6 23.41 51 25.3 50.9 12.8 61.3 50.32 8.73 26.91 10.32 25.02

among others, Hirway’s examination of the

* The data refer to current weekly status of workers. argument established the inadequacy of Source: Hirway (2002), p 2031.

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

REVIEW OF WOMEN’S STUDIES

activities, however, uniformly across all states, the number of their time continue to be spent on “unpaid activities” being it dowomen engaged in unpaid activities as well as the time spent by mestic or non-domestic. In this section we dwell on those minuswomen in such activities is higher than that on paid activities; cule percentage of women employed in the non-farm sector to women also spend more time on unpaid activities than men. whom, theoretically, protective labour legislation should apply,

Table 3: State-wise Distribution of Time Spent (in Hours) in SNA Activities by Mode of Payment and Gender but, by and large, does not. There is no way

(Participants)

we can provide an exhaustive account of the

States Male Female Total

way in which the functioning of this sector

Paid Unpaid Per Cent Time

Paid Unpaid Per Cent Time Paid Unpaid Per Cent Time on Unpaid on Unpaid on Unpaid

makes women workers ineligible and/or ex

Activities Activities Activities

cludes from protective legislation, however

Haryana 33.09 18.12 35.38 4.13 25.34 85.99 20.06 21.37 51.58 (1152) (1347) (215) (1494) (1387) (2841) “ineffective” they may have been in the case

Madhya Pradesh Gujarat	29.41 (5247) 44.37	23.34 (6311) 14.17	44.25 24.21	14.31 (3072) 17.18	15.75 (4391) 13.87	52.40 44.67	22.99 (8319) 33.26	20.12 (10702) 14.05	46.6729.70	of all labour. The emphasis here is more to highlight the official recognition of non-ap
	(3959)	(3897)		(1747)	(2541)		(5706)	(6438)		plicability of existing protective labour legis-
Orissa Tamil Nadu	31.25 (2103) 41.42	22.42 (2589) 13.36	41.77 24.39	8.00 (583) 21.8	18.18 (3235) 10.32	69.44 32.45	20.55 (2686) 32.74	20.47 (5824) 12.04	49.9026.89	lation; further, the burden of our argument is also that, mere effective implementation
	(5633)	(4863)		(3034)	(4280)		(8667)	(9143)		alone will not suffice, since disabilities are
MeghalayaCombined states	17.34 (374) 36.54	35.39 (740) 18.12	67.12 33.15	7.83 (196) 14.87	25.34 (692) 15.18	78.39 50.52	12.65 (570) 27.16	30.44 (1432) 16.85	70.64 38.29	built into the manner in which the legislations themselves have been framed and enacted.
	(18468)	(19747)		(8847)	(16633)		(27315)	(36380)		The Report of the Second National Com-

Source: GoI (2000); Quoted in Hirway (2002), p 2032.

(5) Hirway hypothesises (in the absence of time series data) that the decline in the NSS-based WPRs in the 1990s could be a result of the increased share of the unpaid component of the SNA in the 1990s, and hence, in a way is not really a decline but a shift, indicating deterioration in the quality of employment.

[An] increase in “the difficult to measure” sectors of the SNA work as well as in extended SNA work does indicate deterioration in the quality of employment. The former indicates an increase in employment with low productivity and low wages, while the latter indicates an increased burden on women who are primarily responsible for carrying out unpaid domestic services (Hirway 2002: 2035).

Taking SNA and extended SNA activities together, the government of India’s own Report (2000) makes the following important observation:

If we take SNA and extended SNA activities together… women were found to be working for longer hours than men. If we work out the average of women’s work to the total work of male and female, it works out to 55%, which compares quite well with the figure of 53% quoted in the UNDP Human Development Report for 1995. Therefore, if extended SNA activities are included in economic activities, the contribution of women will be higher when compared to men (emphasis added) (GoI 2000:81).

As the NCEUS 2008 Report points out, recognition and inclusion of extended SNA activities as economic activities will not result in women getting higher incomes. “What it means is the absence of recognition of the kind of work, which although not in the realm of monetisation, is important to the sustenance of the family as well as the economy. Recognition of women’s contribution to extended SNA could and should lead to greater appreciation of public policies for the welfare of women” (emphasis added) (NCEUS 2008: 79). We will come back to this theme in Section 3.

2 Aspects of Ineffectiveness of Protective Labour Legislation

In Section 1 our effort was to trace the manner in which economic development has, not just, not “formalised” employment, but worse, as far as women are concerned, bulk of them as well bulk of

84

mission on Labour (henceforth SNCL 2002) and the Report of the Committees Constituted to Study the Problems and Issues of Unorganised Labour in Tamil Nadu (henceforth TN 1998) have recorded several examples of the blatant manner in which not only are provisions of the law violated on the ground, but, worse, very often, the machinery to administer the law remains either to be created and/or to be made functional. Unlike the SNCL 2002, the Report of TN 1998 provides glimpses of how administratively, protective legislation has been rendered dysfunctional. We, therefore, dwell at some length on the observations of TN 1998. In our opinion, the findings of the committee sum up what is by now well known, though it rarely gets officially endorsed. The committee identifies 35 occupations, some of which are covered by some labour welfare enactments, while others are not. The committee has found that the conditions of work do not vary much between protected or unprotected industries. Its overall findings are discussed with few illustrations under three broad heads:

The destinies of the workers are linked up with the machinations of a large number of contractors, on whose whims and fancies, likes and dislikes, depend the availability of work for this type of labour. These middlemen have the least regard for the health and welfare of the workers, and in fact, these middlemen exploit the workers by taking advantage of their economic d ependence and ignorance (GoTN 1998: 22).

The larger implication of the contract system of employment is that, large numbers of workers remain outside the purview of the Factories Act, since employers recognise and deal only with contractors and not directly with the labour that the contractors bring in. For example, the committee found that, in the saltpans of Vedaranyam, Tamil Nadu, barely 50 to 60 workers were in the payroll of the establishment out of a total strength of 600 workers whom the

committee found working. Similarly, in vessels manufacturing units, the committee notes that the most important characteristic of this employment is that workers are employed only indirectly on piecerate basis or job-rate basis through a contractor who mediates between the actual employer and the workers. This particular employment has been included in the schedule of employment under the Minimum Wages Act of the Labour and Employment Department in 1978; besides, the minimum rates of wages have been fixed and revised periodically. Nevertheless, the committee notes as follows:

Conditions of Work: The committee found that working conditions in almost all the industries were deplorable. Further, it noted that employers used great ingenuity to keep their units outside the purview of the Factories Act. This allowed the employers to fix wages arbitrarily, often below the statutory provisions of the Minimum Wages Act for the concerned industry. A significant finding of the committee is the active gender discrimination practised by the industries covered by them. For example, commenting on the practices in the appalam (papad) manufacturing industry, the committee notes:

Similarly, in the coir industry, while a male worker earns, on average, about Rs 40 per day, a female worker is paid from Rs 25 to Rs 27 per day only (ibid: 29).

Further the committee noted that the employees in the appalam industry were mostly girls who had been forced to drop out from schools and enter the industry to augment their family income.

A point stressed by the committee in the context of the match and fireworks industry was that large numbers of women and children were engaged as homeworkers in processes that were delinked from other processes that required factory premises. In the latter processes only male workers were employed. Unfortunately, the committee did not proceed beyond recording this observation. To us this fact has tremendous implications from a gender angle. Even if eventually the committee were to succeed in regulating the factories, this by itself was not sufficient to ensure regularisation of those processes of the industry now carried on as home-based work by women and children.

Health and Safety Aspects of Work: In a refreshing departure, the committee comments extensively on safety and health aspects, even if at a general level. Its observations are based on what it encountered during field visits plus the perceptions of the workers whom it interviewed. It observes that the strain of working long hours in unhealthy and insanitary conditions and the low standard of living due to the meagre earnings, contributed to a great extent to workers’ poor state of health.

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

october 31, 2009 vol xliv no 44

In most industries, the workers are not provided with any protective equipment. In those units where such equipment is provided, the committee found them to be totally unsuitable. In bleaching and dyeing units, the committee found workers standing very close to the metal pot fixed over a furnace, and, without wearing any goggles. Workers were also exposed to risks from handling caustic soda, acids and other dangerous effluents emanating from the different processes. In the cashewnut industry (which is listed in the “dangerous operation” category of the Tamil Nadu Factories Rules, 1950), the committee found that the scrubbing and shelling of cashewnuts results in skin cancer. Contact with shell oil causes the peeling of outer skin though it does not result in permanent disablement. The committee found many workers afflicted by dermatitis. In industries, where the concentration of dust particles in workplaces was heavy and continuous, it found the workers prone to respiratory disorders.

Our purpose in discussing the committee’s report is to highlight the official recognition, given, albeit belatedly, to not just the abysmal contractual and physical conditions of informally employed workers, but also the risks to their health associated with such employment. The committee believes that the creation of “appropriate administrative and infrastructure machinery” to implement existing legislation will go a long way towards addressing the problems it highlights. On this point, we do not agree with the committee since, as the committee itself has documented, employers have been able to circumvent existing legislation and employ labour without formally recognising them as such.

Below we highlight, thematically and through illustrative examples, certain observations made by the reports of the NCEUS 2008, and the SNCL 2002, which, again, officially corroborates what have already been extensively documented independently by several independent researchers and by other official reports.

3 What Do We Do with ‘Unpaid Labour’?

In sum, the burden of our argument is the following: one, within the large, growing, amorphous segment called unorganised economy, the dominant category is that of the self-employed, within which a significant percentage of women work as “unpaid family workers”. Two, our data reveal that substantial numbers of women in the prime age group, 15-59 years, still return “domestic duties” as their principal status. Three, those who reported domestic duties as their principal

status were also involved in a number of activities aimed at helping Further, as long as we continue to designate a number of routheir households save incomes if not to directly earn it. Four, more tine household tasks as women’s tasks, public policies will conthan one-third of the women reporting domestic duties as principal tinue to remain gendered. To return to a quote earlier from the status were willing to accept work at home, part or full time. Five, NCEUS (2008) Report: “Recognition of women’s contribution to the applicability of protective labour legislation to the vast numbers extended SNA could, and should, lead to greater appreciation of in the unorganised economy is abysmal with effective coverage be-public policies for the welfare of women” (emphasis added, p 79). ing even less. Six, labour law administration, as is currently consti-In other words, if the underlying assumptions of public policies tuted, is part of the problem of ineffective and non-coverage. are not questioned, the latter could as well contribute to essen-

Read together, these reports, and their recommendations in tialising and reinforcing domestic tasks as women’s work, but in particular, raise some disturbing questions relating to the resil-the name of enhancing women’s welfare. ience of the “unpaid labour” category that no amount of effective What does the above lead us to: one, the category of unpaid coverage or even effective administration of protective labour family labour, currently has no protective labour legislation, legislation can resolve. This, in our opinion, has more to do with since none are applicable to this category. The unpaid domestic the nature and trajectory of economic development and the ensu-labour category can be salvaged to a significant extent, if our ing employment that this economic growth is generating. Other-gendered outlook on this category is replaced by household and wise, it is difficult to account for the sustained manner in which citizenship based protective legislation, that enables every housesuch large percentages of women continue to figure in the cate-hold, and, every household member to be relieved of such chores gory of “unpaid labour”, be it “unpaid family labour” or “unpaid by effective provision through appropriate public policies, be it domestic labour”. While every one of these reports recognises the water, fuel, dependency care, etc. category of unpaid labour, their recommendations have invaria-Finally, we need to revisit and endorse the call for universal bly addressed the existing set of laws that cater to wage labour. availability of maternal benefits and childcare facilities made by

At one level, the country as a whole, and feminists in particu-the Shramshakti Report 1988. lar, will need to think through the category of unpaid labour to In short, this exercise has starkly brought out the fact that, while arrive at a set of policies, that needs to operate simultaneously, if women’s work and women as workers suffer exclusion from prothe disadvantages that go with being an unpaid labour need to be tective legislation, a disaggregated analysis of the nature and kind removed. At another level, taken individually, each of these re-of exclusion calls for a nuanced and focused approach. It has also ports seems to take as given the fact of the continued creation and indicated that at the moment existing protective legislation has no expansion of the unorganised economy and also the condemna-solution to the category of unpaid family labour, while, the unpaid tion of large numbers of women to the category of unpaid labour domestic labour category will need a paradigm shift in policy conas an inevitable consequence of economic growth. ception if “welfare of women” is truly of prime concern.

Notes normally exists in this organisation. In addition to – (2000): “Report of the Time Use Survey”, Ministhis, there has hardly been any increase in the try of Statistics and Programme Implementation,

the mining industry has increased several times ernment of India), April.

2 The NCEUS has engaged extensively with the during this period” (ibid: 66 and 73). – (2002): “Report of the Second National Commisterms, formal/organised sector, informal/unor4 Subsequent to the bifurcation, the Tamil Nadu sion on Labour”, Ministry of Labour (New Delhi: ganised sector, formal/informal economy, and government issued a government order whereby Governement of India).

formal/informal workers (NCEUS 2009: 12-14).

the labour department was to recruit 60 assistant GoTN (1998): “Report of the Committees Constituted 3 The Second National Commission on Labour has inspectors of labour (factories) to be deputed to to Study the Problems and Issues of Unorganised examined extensively the functioning of instituthe inspectorate of factories to oversee the imple-Labour in Tamil Nadu”, Office of the Commissioner tions responsible for safety of workers in the minmentation of the Factories Act. However, since of Labour (Chennai: Government of Tamil Nadu).

ing industry, for example. Suffice it to note here the the government has not created 60 posts of assist-Hirway, I (2002): “Employment and Unemployment shocking findings of the commission relating to, ant inspectors of factories, the implementation of Situation in the 1990s: How Good Are NSS Data?”,

among other things, the low priority accorded to the Factories Act which includes the notification Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 37, No 21, 25-31 recruitment and expansion of personnel needed to under Section 85 has not been possible. May, 2027-36.

undertake the task even as the industry has grown 5 The TN 1998 Report records that an inspector in Millie, Nihila (1999): “Marginalisation of Women by leaps and bounds. “Recently, the Parliament’s the labour department enforces 21 labour enact-Workers: Leather Tanning Industry in Tamil

Standing Committee on Labour and Welfare (13th Lok Sabha) observed (para 2.64 of its report) that

ments. This is in addition to the regular adminis-Nadu”, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 34, Nos 16 trative work, court work, apart from periodical and 17, 17-24 April.

during the last 15 years, the size of the mining industry has increased fourfold, whereas the staff NCEUS (2008): “Report on Conditions of Work and Pro

special drives under Consumer Protection Acts. component of the DGMS has remained static, and motion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector”, this is grossly inadequate to meet safety operations National Commission for Enterprises in the Unor-

References

in mines. The Committee further observed that out ganised Sector (New Delhi: Academic Foundation). of 598 coalmines, the Dept has been able to make Blumberg, R L, ed. (1991): Gender, Family and Econo-– (2009): “The Challenge of Employment in India: complete inspections in only 159 coalmines during my: The Triple Overlap (California: Sage). An Informal Economy Perspective”, Vol 1, Main

the year 2000-01. The Dept has pleaded that due to Gopal, Meena (1999): “Disempowered Despite Wage Report, New Delhi, April. inadequate staff, it could carry out inspection of all Work: Women Workers in Beedi Industry”, Economic Sundaram, K (2001a): “Employment-Unemployment mines only once in four years. The shocking state of & Political Weekly, Vol 34, Nos 16 and 17, 17-24 April. Situation in the Nineties: Some Results from NSS

inadequacy of staff can be seen from the fact that at GoI (1974): “Towards Equality: Report of the Commit-55th Round Survey”, Economic & Political Weekly, present, the Dept has only 130 inspecting officers tee on the Status of Women in India”, Ministry of Vol 36, No 11, 17-23 March. against the sanctioned strength of 167… It can be Education and Social Welfare, Department of – (2001b): “Employment and Poverty in India in the observed that the actual number of inspecting offic-Social Welfare, Government of India, December. Nineteen Nineties: Further Results from NSS 55th ers is about 22% lower than the sanctioned – (1988): “Shramshakti: Report of the National Com-Round Employment-Unemployment Survey, 1999strength. We were informed that this was because mission on Self-Employed Women and Women in 2000”, paper presented at the International Seminar of procedural delays in filling up vacancies arising the Informal Sector”, Department of Women and on “Understanding Socio-Economic Changes through from retirement, etc. In fact, a shortage of 20-30% Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource National Surveys”, organised by the National Sample inspecting officers against the sanctioned strength Development (New Delhi: Government of India). Survey Organisation, 12-13 May, New Delhi.

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

october 31, 2009 vol xliv no 44