Amendment to Maternity Benefit Act is historic, but more needs to be done for women in India
8 years, 7 months ago

Amendment to Maternity Benefit Act is historic, but more needs to be done for women in India

Firstpost  

The recent amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act providing 26 weeks of maternity leave can be described as historic. If India can increase its women participation in labour force by 10 percentage points by 2025, it could increase its GDP by16 percent. India is among the few countries to witness a drastic decline in participation of women in work force, which has decreased to 27 percent in 2011-12 from 37 percent in 2004-5. Over the past two decades, Brazil’s female labour force participation rate has increased by more than 15 percentage points, almost touching 64 percent, and the increase is mainly driven by married women and by women with children. However in India, where no such compulsions exist, this legislation to retain women in work force addresses factors beyond economics and has its genesis in political and social reality.

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History of this topic

Over 89 million urban Indian women still out of labour market in 2023-2024
Trending News
2 weeks, 2 days ago

Over 89 million urban Indian women still out of labour market in 2023-2024

The Hindu  

Despite women’s employment in urban India jumping 10% in six years, more than 89 million urban Indian women are still out of the labour market in 2023-2024, according to a white paper launched by Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2025. Meanwhile, young male unemployment in urban India outpaces women’s in a concerning …

T.N. govt. lists out measures undertaken for welfare of women
2 weeks, 3 days ago

T.N. govt. lists out measures undertaken for welfare of women

The Hindu  

Ahead of the International Women’s Day on March 8, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday listed out the measures being undertaken for the welfare of women. The State government had extended marriage assistance to the tune of ₹1,047 crore for about 1.26 lakh women, an official release said. It waived off loans obtained by 15.88 lakh women attached to 1.17 …

India witnesses positive trend in female workforce participation over past six years: Centre
2 weeks, 5 days ago

India witnesses positive trend in female workforce participation over past six years: Centre

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: Ministry of Labour and Employment Secretary Sumita Dawra on Wednesday said India has witnessed a positive trend in female workforce participation over the past six years. With India’s Female Labour Force Participation Rate at 41.7 per cent, this platform brought together government policymakers, industry leaders, global organizations, and skilling institutions to address key challenges and barriers, including employment barriers, …

​Long roots: on India and patriarchal biases
3 weeks ago

​Long roots: on India and patriarchal biases

The Hindu  

If institutions are serious about rooting out sexism, they must walk the talk. In a judgment last week, the Supreme Court of India showed its intent by declaring that with more and more women joining judicial service, it was time for the judiciary to be more cognisant of their well-being at the workplace. Reinstating two women judicial officers of Madhya …

A leap backward for maternity entitlements
3 weeks, 4 days ago

A leap backward for maternity entitlements

The Hindu  

Even as State after State is splurging on cash transfers for women, the most vulnerable among them, pregnant women, continue to be deprived of their legal right to maternity benefits. Under the National Food Security Act 2013, all pregnant women are entitled to maternity benefits of ₹6,000 a child. Based on this information, we have estimated the PMMVY’s effective coverage, …

Why breaking gender roles is imperative for India to sustain economic growth
1 month, 1 week ago

Why breaking gender roles is imperative for India to sustain economic growth

India Today  

One of the biggest pains of traditional Indian society is the strict gender roles crafted for women, which has restricted their participation in the workforce due to the assigned gender role of parenting and homemaking. India’s Total Fertility Rate is 1.98 children per woman, which means women are bound in unpaid labour at home while the rising cost of child-rearing …

Unlocking women’s workforce potential in India
1 month, 1 week ago

Unlocking women’s workforce potential in India

The Hindu  

India’s quest for high economic growth and social equity hinges on an obvious but underrated lever — its women’s workforce. A new study by the writers, titled “Unlocking Women’s Workforce Potential in India: Quantifying the Labour Market Impact of Formalising Part-time Employment and Gender Equality in Unpaid Care Work”, published by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, delves into …

Did better maternity leave disadvantage Indian women in jobs? Study says…
1 month, 1 week ago

Did better maternity leave disadvantage Indian women in jobs? Study says…

India Today  

Women-centric benefits, such as extended paid maternity leave, may be introduced with the right intentions—to boost women’s presence in the workforce—but new research finds these may have unintended consequences. The findings of a study funded by a US government agency reveal that after the legislation on longer maternity leave in India was implemented, women were approximately 22 per cent less …

Women’s labour force participation in India rises to 35.6%
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Women’s labour force participation in India rises to 35.6%

Deccan Chronicle  

Chennai: A rapid rise in women’s labour force participation in India from just 21.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 35.6 per cent in 2023-24 is expected to push female employment in South Asia, finds the World Bank. South Asia’s female labour force participation today remains among the lowest in the world with over 400 million working-age women in the region …

Women’s organisations seek focus on increasing female workforce participation in Union budget
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Women’s organisations seek focus on increasing female workforce participation in Union budget

The Hindu  

Women’s organisations and civil society members feel that increasing female workforce participation through employment-linked incentives, flexible work hours, and providing supportive infrastructure, including work site creches, should be a priority of the government in the upcoming Union budget. Even as the women’s groups lauded the increase in the ‘gender budget’ component of the previous budget, as well as special schemes, …

BJP announces freebies to trump AAP in Delhi: Rs 21,000 to pregnant women, Rs 2500 to all women, and more
Trending News
2 months ago

BJP announces freebies to trump AAP in Delhi: Rs 21,000 to pregnant women, Rs 2500 to all women, and more

Op India  

On Friday, 17th January, the BJP ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 made public its Sankalp Patra to announce several schemes for the women. “BJP’s resolution for the people of Delhi… Every pregnant woman will get financial assistance of Rs 21,000 and 6 nutrition kits,” the party said. “Pension for senior citizens of 70+ years, widows, destitute and abandoned …

Economic imperative of women’s leadership in India’s private sector
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Economic imperative of women’s leadership in India’s private sector

Hindustan Times  

This decade is widely regarded as India’s, with the country poised to realise its vision of becoming a global economic powerhouse. Central to this transformation is India’s private sector, which plays a pivotal role in driving growth, innovation, and competitiveness, setting the stage for a robust and sustainable economic future. Building a pipeline of women to reach leadership roles can …

India witnesses drastic increase in female labour force participation rate under Modi govt since 2017
3 months, 2 weeks ago

India witnesses drastic increase in female labour force participation rate under Modi govt since 2017

Op India  

In a major development, the female labour force participation rate has witnessed a drastic improvement in the past 5 years. According to a report published by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, rural female LFPR has increased from 24.6% to 41.5% between 2017-2018 and 2022-2023 at the national level. Screengrab of the report by the Economic Advisory Council …

More Than a Social Issue: Why Women’s Empowerment is an Economic Imperative
7 months, 3 weeks ago

More Than a Social Issue: Why Women’s Empowerment is an Economic Imperative

News 18  

“Empowering women isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do.” – Barack Obama India stands at a critical juncture in its pursuit of inclusive economic growth, where the interplay of health, gender equality, and economic policies is more significant than ever. The recently tabled Economic Survey 2024 and the Union Budget have brought to …

Hand rocking the cradle can change India
8 months ago

Hand rocking the cradle can change India

New Indian Express  

There was a recent report that a multinational firm in Chennai had taken a policy decision against recruiting married women. With constitutional guarantees of equality in education and employment, women in India have achieved success in educational and professional fields and broken the glass ceiling when provided with opportunities. However, a large proportion of women do encounter subtle biases when …

Lifting the burden keeping Indian women from work
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Lifting the burden keeping Indian women from work

New Indian Express  

Women’s work participation across the world has been low and its recovery from the post-pandemic period has been slow. The International Labour Organization’s World Employment and Social Outlook Report for 2023 reflects on this persistent gender gap and pegs women’s participation in the labour market at 47.4 percent, as compared to men’s at 72.3 percent. Apart from the ILO's highlight …

Odisha Govt Announces 10-day Extra Leave For Women Govt Employees
1 year ago

Odisha Govt Announces 10-day Extra Leave For Women Govt Employees

Deccan Chronicle  

The Odisha government on Tuesday announced extra benefits to the women employees working in various government departments in the state. Following the announcement, women government employees will now be entitled to get 25 days of casual leave after the addition of 10 extra leaves per year. The announcement was made by the state government in view of the domestic responsibilities …

The determinant in more women in the job market
1 year ago

The determinant in more women in the job market

The Hindu  

There is growing demand from social scientists, governments and international organisations, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that women’s participation in the economy/labour market should increase to promote economic growth of India. Consequently, they overcrowd in stereotyped low productivity jobs and lag behind men in all average labour market outcomes such as participation, wages, and diversification …

India Needs to Work on Pay Parity for Women: WB
1 year ago

India Needs to Work on Pay Parity for Women: WB

Deccan Chronicle  

Chennai: While Indian working women have freedom of movement, laws affecting women’s decisions to work, and less constraints related to marriage, laws related to women’s pay and work after childbirth are areas where the government needs to work, finds a study by the World Bank. When it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women’s decisions to work, …

Women, babies, growth: ‘Not a switch that can be turned on and off’
1 year ago

Women, babies, growth: ‘Not a switch that can be turned on and off’

Hindustan Times  

Some estimates say India’s population will peak as early as the 2040s – close enough to worry about. Round 5 of the NFHS shows that India’s fertility level is below the replacement rate of 2.1 in all but five states. One is that once women decide to have fewer children, it’s not a switch that can be turned on and …

Median salaries for women rises 28% in 2024; 2.8 crore out of 7 crore applicants are female: Report
1 year, 1 month ago

Median salaries for women rises 28% in 2024; 2.8 crore out of 7 crore applicants are female: Report

Live Mint  

New Delhi, Dec 24 Women accounted for an impressive 2.8 crore job applications, out of a total of seven crore in 2024, marking a 20 per cent increase from 2023, revealed a new report. The total of seven crore job applications, which itself is a "25 per cent year-on-year surge", according to the report, is primarily driven by heightened workforce …

More women take to STEM at college. But can India Inc stem their exit from jobs?
1 year, 1 month ago

More women take to STEM at college. But can India Inc stem their exit from jobs?

Live Mint  

The country has seen a remarkable rise in women joining colleges, and many of them are studying science and technology courses, but that has failed to significantly improve the diversity quotient at corporate India. Yet, the high number of women graduates will take a while before they boost gender diversity in India Inc. During and after the pandemic, a large …

India starts survey to assess women participation in workforce
1 year, 1 month ago

India starts survey to assess women participation in workforce

The Hindu  

The Union Ministries of Labour & Employment and Women & Child Development have started a joint survey on increasing women participation in the workforce. The survey was announced by Union Minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi at a function “Women in the Workforce for Viksit Bharat” on Tuesday. Latest PLFS data The latest results of the Periodic Labour Force Survey, …

The big threat to India’s demographic dividend
1 year, 3 months ago

The big threat to India’s demographic dividend

Live Mint  

Bengaluru: In a short press release, dated 13 October, the Ministry of Women and Child Development announced that the Female Labour Force Participation Rate for 2022-23 had improved significantly over the previous year by 4.2 percentage points to 37%. Non-obvious insights View Full Image One of the most under-reported trends is that agriculture, which is the least productive undertaking, is …

Burden of care work: Gender's impact on the wage gap
1 year, 5 months ago

Burden of care work: Gender's impact on the wage gap

Hindustan Times  

In 1989, Claudia Goldin became the first woman to be given tenure in the economics department at Harvard University. According to the International Labor Organization, unpaid care work is estimated to be one of the major barriers to women’s entry into the labour force. In India, conversations about recognising unpaid care work have been in the public sphere for many …

Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath shares insight on India’s low female labour force partic
1 year, 6 months ago

Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath shares insight on India’s low female labour force partic

Live Mint  

India's female labour force participation remains to be at an extremely low level in past one decade. Highlighting the opportunity of economic boost by employing India's female population, Zerodha's Nithin Kamath shared insight on India's female labour force participation. Our female labor force participation rate is among the lowest in the world.” He also underlined thed drastic fall in female …

Pregnant Working Women Entitled To Maternity Benefits, Can’t Be Barred Solely Due To Nature Of Employment: Delhi High Court
1 year, 7 months ago

Pregnant Working Women Entitled To Maternity Benefits, Can’t Be Barred Solely Due To Nature Of Employment: Delhi High Court

Live Law  

The Delhi High Court has observed that pregnant working women are entitled to maternity benefits and cannot be denied reliefs under the Maternity Benefit Act, 2017, solely due to the nature of their employment. “There is nothing in the language of the Act or in its provisions which suggests that a working expecting woman would be barred from getting the …

DC Edit | Women's employment a steep challenge
1 year, 7 months ago

DC Edit | Women's employment a steep challenge

Deccan Chronicle  

India is the most populous nation on earth and more than half of its people, 52 per cent to be precise, are aged below 30. Given that India’s sex ratio is almost evenly poised, about 35 crore women, a number almost equal to the whole population of the United States, belong to this group. Pit this against the current data …

Address labour code gaps to help women
1 year, 9 months ago

Address labour code gaps to help women

New Indian Express  

Though the legislation intends to positively impact women’s health and well-being, thereby boosting female labour force participation, implementing the legislation in the informal sector has been challenging. Also, the legislation does not include a provision for parental or shared parental leave, something which is extremely important to address gender inequalities in households to encourage women to sustain themselves in the …

Why women get fewer jobs and earn lesser wages than men in India
2 years ago

Why women get fewer jobs and earn lesser wages than men in India

The Hindu  

Published : Feb 27, 2023 12:39 IST Following the announcement by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in October last year of equal pay for all men and women Team India cricketers, the highest bid received by a cricketer in the inaugural Women’s Premier League is being celebrated as a watershed moment, not just in India but globally. …

Many Can Learn from India's Health Systems; Put Women in Positions of Power: Melinda Gates to News18 - News18
2 years, 3 months ago

Many Can Learn from India's Health Systems; Put Women in Positions of Power: Melinda Gates to News18 - News18

News 18  

Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is on a visit to India. In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18 on Tuesday, she spoke at length about India’s Covid vaccination model, its digital strides, hosting G20, putting women in positions of power, and areas that need improvement. All talked about how people around them see them differently …

Make workplaces women-friendly, says Tharoor
2 years, 4 months ago

Make workplaces women-friendly, says Tharoor

The Hindu  

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has stressed the need for the government to contribute to the maternity benefits of women so that employers do not have to bear expenses completely. Delivering the Mother Veronica oration on ‘Women and education’ and inaugurating the bicentenary celebrations of Venerable Mother Veronica of the Passion at Providence Women’s College in Kozhikode on Tuesday, Mr. Tharoor …

Why India can’t afford women staying out of labour market
2 years, 4 months ago

Why India can’t afford women staying out of labour market

Live Mint  

Separately, Oxfam India’s India Discrimination Report 2022 revealed that wages are lower for women overwhelmingly because of discriminatory practices and only slightly due to lack of education and work experience. Besides, a significant number of qualified women were found unwilling to join the labour market due to ‘family responsibilities’, said the report. A recent Bloomberg Economics analysis estimated that though …

Let’s step up strategic efforts to mobilize India’s labour potential
2 years, 5 months ago

Let’s step up strategic efforts to mobilize India’s labour potential

Live Mint  

For years, India’s demographic transition has garnered significant attention. As per the National Sample Survey Office’s Periodic Labour Force Survey 2020-21, India’s labour force participation rate for all age groups is around 41.6%. With our working-age population projected to grow by roughly 9.7 million per year from 2021 to 2031 and 4.2 million annually in the 2031-41 period, there is …

WFH: Can it add more Indian women to the workforce?
2 years, 6 months ago

WFH: Can it add more Indian women to the workforce?

Business Standard  

One of the five pledges that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed Indians to adopt during his Independence Day speech was equality, specifically equality for women. Modi’s remarks assume significance as India has one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rate, or LFPR. Having said that, the International Labour Organization, or ILO found that a significant proportion of women …

Mission 2047: How to bring Indian women into the workforce
2 years, 7 months ago

Mission 2047: How to bring Indian women into the workforce

Live Mint  

India has one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates. There are many reasons: A lack of demand for women workers; poor working conditions including low wages, safety concerns and exploitation; girls studying longer; migration; nuclearization of families where there are fewer women to share domestic responsibilities; and the ‘middle income effect’ where women stop working because the …

May the Female Force Be With You: India Must Harness the Strength of Women in the Workforce
2 years, 10 months ago

May the Female Force Be With You: India Must Harness the Strength of Women in the Workforce

News 18  

Michelle Obama’s famous remarks that “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens” deserves more attention than ever as we celebrate this International Labour Day. As a result of its strict adherence to social norms and patriarchal values, Indian society disproportionately places the …

How to ensure more women in the workforce
2 years, 10 months ago

How to ensure more women in the workforce

Hindustan Times  

India aims to become a $5-trillion economy by 2025. We focus on the fact that while the male labour force participation rates in the two countries are fairly similar, their female labour force participation rates are vastly different. The bulk of the research on female participation in the labour force has been on supply-side constraints: Family income and employment, marital …

Women@Work: Working Women Up Globally but Down in India. Is There a Way Out?
3 years ago

Women@Work: Working Women Up Globally but Down in India. Is There a Way Out?

News 18  

My daughter who is in Grade 1 was in her Hindi online class and while doing the akshar श्र they were asked to draw a श्रमिक, without hesitation she drew me. If you look at data from the 1990s till date, across most countries, women’s participation in the labour force has increased. Our rate is significantly lower than Sri Lanka …

Why India needs a gender-positive recovery
3 years, 11 months ago

Why India needs a gender-positive recovery

India Today  

Gurgaon-based artist Akanksha Sarkar, 41, has given up taking on freelance projects. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 estimates that the time it will take to close the global gender gap—in health, education, politics and economics—has increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. Home to 650 million women, India has slipped 28 places in the WEF’s Global …

How India fared in Global Gender Gap Report 2021
3 years, 11 months ago

How India fared in Global Gender Gap Report 2021

Live Mint  

The gender gap in India has widened to 62.5%, largely due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, decrease in women’s labour force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, income inequality. The report is a measure of gender gap on four parameters: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political …

India’s women and the workforce
4 years ago

India’s women and the workforce

Hindustan Times  

Why is women’s employment declining in India? The thrust of the predominant explanations is that women are dropping out of paid work or the labour force either because of fear of sexual violence outside the home; or fear of being stigmatised by the community that might see their work as a marker of low status, i.e. Women’s education has increased …

Maternity Benefits Act yet to have positive impact on women labour force participation: Report
4 years, 4 months ago

Maternity Benefits Act yet to have positive impact on women labour force participation: Report

Hindustan Times  

The Maternity Benefits Act 2017 is yet to have a positive impact on women labour force participation as out of the 10 sectors reviewed women participation has dropped in more than five sectors since the implementation of the act, says a report. According to a TeamLease Report, Maternity Benefits Act 2017 has not helped in improving women labour force participation. …

Sonia asks Cong CMs to pay Rs 6,000 NFSA maternity benefit
5 years, 3 months ago

Sonia asks Cong CMs to pay Rs 6,000 NFSA maternity benefit

India TV News  

Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi has written to all the party Chief Ministers to ensure that all eligible pregnant women and lactating mothers received Rs 6,000 as envisioned under the National Food Security Act, 2013. After ignoring the 2013 Act for more than three years, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government introduced the maternity benefit scheme -- Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana …

Opinion | The business case for gender equality in our society
5 years, 4 months ago

Opinion | The business case for gender equality in our society

Live Mint  

The complex tapestry of gender equality is composed of various hues— equality of opportunity, breaking down of gender stereotypes, respect for roles played by women in the household, crimes against women, and female infanticide. Closer home, if Indian women participated in the workforce to the same extent as women across the world, India’s gross domestic product would be higher by …

There is no easy fix to declining workforce productivity in India
5 years, 4 months ago

There is no easy fix to declining workforce productivity in India

Live Mint  

Labour productivity in India’s organized manufacturing sector continues its downward spiral. India Ratings and Research’s analysis of the Annual Survey of Industries data showed India’s productivity has fallen significantly over the last eight years. A report published by the State Bank of India Research said India’s labour productivity was significantly lower than global peers. Further, it said that India’s labour …

Missing female labour force: India could lose out on economic dividends with inadequate job creation
5 years, 6 months ago

Missing female labour force: India could lose out on economic dividends with inadequate job creation

Firstpost  

India has been undergoing a curious trend. As per recently released data by the National Sample Survey Organisation in its Periodic Labour Force Survey, the country’s labour force participation rate, which is the section of population in the working age that is currently employed or looking for employment, has fallen to 49. As per recently released data by the National …

Woman Employee Entitled To Claim Maternity Leave For Period Of 6 Months: Allahabad HC
5 years, 11 months ago

Woman Employee Entitled To Claim Maternity Leave For Period Of 6 Months: Allahabad HC

Live Law  

Allahabad High Court held that a woman employee was entitled to maternity leave for a full period of six months as against only three months she was granted by the respondent District Basic Education officer, Bijnor and directed latter to provide the petitioner woman employee maternity leave with honorarium with effect from 30.12.2018 to 31.3.2019 as was prayed by her. …

Invest in new mothers at work
6 years, 1 month ago

Invest in new mothers at work

Hindustan Times  

Some time ago, The Economist published a cover story which focused on the women missing from the workforce in India. This is largely untrue and unfair but that is how it goes So I was happily surprised to learn of an initiative called RebootHer started by Anupama Kapoor, a gender intelligence facilitator, and Gopika Kaul, a digital media professional, which …

Opinion | India’s maternity laws need serious tweaking
6 years, 3 months ago

Opinion | India’s maternity laws need serious tweaking

Live Mint  

India will never put poverty in the museum unless we raise women’s labour force participation. A few remedial measures suggested in the TeamLease study for addressing and mitigating this issue include cost sharing between employer and government by way of reimbursement once the employer furnishes the proof of payment of maternity leave wage, slab-based tax rebates offered by the government …

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