Women workers more likely to suffer during recession

There should be more investment in the construction and textile industry where the number of women employees is higher. This was the opinion of speakers at the seminar on GEDI (Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity), organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad (IIM-A) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Talking about recession and the way it has impacted woman workforce, IIM-A faculty member Rakesh Basant suggested ways to explore relations between gender and recession and its impact on society. He also talked about the nature of work and the nature of the sector the person works in and whether tax benefits should be provided to workers in companies to combat recession.

He said woman workforce was more prone to suffer during recession as there was a larger proportion working in the unorganised sector.

He said that women were engaged in work from home, many of them were part-time workers and there was a lower level of education among the woman workforce.

In the course of the discussion, participants discussed ways and means to analyse the status of woman workforce during recession.

Pushpa Wadhwani, head of Gujarat unit of the Azim Premji Foundation, said, "There is a need to have clear guidelines for working women in the unorganised sector."

"For example, a woman was to stitch for some families and the income level of those families went down. This would affect the income of the lady as well," said Achchyut Kumar, GM, Forbes & Company.

Some of the solutions suggested by the experts who spoke at the seminar included incentives offered by the government to employees in terms of tax benefits and policy interventions.
The discussion also saw participants talking about long-term and short-term solutions to help women combat recession. The need for social security was also discussed during the course of the meeting, something that employees in our country did not have.