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Attaining gender justice in India is based on the degree of financial empowerment women enjoy. Statistics reveal that the participation of women in India’s workforce, especially in the corporate sector, has been dropping over the years. It is a surprising trend when juxtaposed against women moving into traditional male bastions and breaking stereotypes. As per data from the World Bank, the participation of women in the workforce in India has shown a steady decline – from 30.27 percent in 1990 to 20.8 percent in 2019. In fact, the pandemic seems to have exacerbated the dropout rate in women from the labour force, as stated by the International Labour Organization.
New barriers have cropped up during the pandemic amplifying the pre-existing gender gap in spite of women being at the frontlines of fighting the scourge. The crisis has disrupted the labour market through accelerated digitalization and automation. Sectors, where more technical skills are needed, are more likely to witness widening gender gaps and difficulties for women earning a digital livelihood.
The falling drop rate of women in the workforce, including in career training, is a cause of concern. This is surprising given that the enrolment of women in higher education has been steadily rising over the years. In order to create an inclusive workplace and achieve gender parity, governments and corporates need to embark on gender-sensitive recovery strategies. They need to create more resilient and gender-equal opportunities for women in the workforce. This is needed to prevent long-term scarring in the workplace.
Among the strategies to create more equitable workforce participation are facilitating women’s rise to managerial positions, providing incentives for reskilling or career training, and redeploying the skilled resources. Strikingly, in a competitive job market where keeping aligned to the requirements of the industry is the need of the hour, why are girls/women choosing to drop out? Let us understand the reasons for the same.train
Reasons for a rising drop-out rate among girls in career training in India
With India looking at reaping its demographic dividend given its burgeoning young population, the role of women has become important. However, a few reasons are styming the objectives of attaining gender parity in the workforce, including in the crucial aspect of career training.
Pressures of domesticity: A large section of women in the workforce plays a dual role – taking care of the family along with shouldering the responsibilities at the workplace. This puts undue pressure on them in giving need-based extra hours at the workplace: a crucial parameter in judging their commitment towards managing work-related challenges. Also, women are often forced to take a long break from work after childbirth, making it difficult for them to ‘adapt’ to the changed scenario at the workplace later. In fact, childcare is the leading barrier that prevents women from participating in career training at any skill development training centre. They have to bear an unequal responsibility in managing household chores, looking after childcare, and executing official duties.
Safety at workplace and transportation: Cases of harassment of women at the workplace are not few and far or an oddity. In fact, they rear their ugly head from time to time despite the enactment of stringent regulations to prevent them. Also, career training is usually conducted either before or after the working hours, which requires employees to stay well after the official hours or reach the office before. This requires them to travel at odd hours when safety is a prime concern. Importantly, there has been a series of unfortunate incidents wherein women returning late from work have become victims of crime. These have led women to be think twice about staying late after office hours.
Advanced technological changes: As mentioned above, with automation and digitalization making strong inroads into the workplace, women may find themselves at a disadvantage vis-a-vis men. This is because women are less in number when it comes to possessing competencies in STEM-enabled fields of work. This may partially explain the low participation of women in career training, especially when it is about pursuing futurepro skills.
Conclusion
The participation of girls or women in career training in workplaces in India has shown a marked decline over the years. The above-mentioned reasons highlight the challenges policymakers need to address to change the trend. With women bringing a lot to the table as far as achieving competitiveness in business goes, the barriers preventing them from rising the corporate ladder should be dismantled.
