👑 Women in Workfoce – Tamil Nadu – Yes, we are there! And next?

What more can be done…

Vidya Mahambare, Union Bank Chair Professor of Economics and Director (Research), Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

India’s industrial sector exhibits a significant geographical concentration. Just three states, Gujrat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are, home to around 20 per cent of India’s population and account for nearly 38 per cent of both factories and invested capital (Annual Survey of Industries, 2019-20). The three states also account for 40 per cent of industrial workers. Maharashtra and Gujarat employ 11 per cent and 12 per cent of India’s industrial workers, respectively, while Tamil Nadu leads with 15.75 per cent.

Gender distribution of industrial workers
There is, however, another remarkable statistic that clearly distinguishes Tamil Nadu from the other two states – the gender distribution of industrial workers. Women account for a mere 6 per cent of workers directly employed by factories in Gujarat while women’s share is twice, that in the case of Maharashtra. In comparison, Tamil Nadu, accounts 40 per cent women, of total workers directly employed by factories – twice the share at all-India level.

The annual survey of industries does not provide information on gender-wise break-up of workers employed through contractors, supervisory and managerial factory staff. In Tamil Nadu, 63 per cent of people engaged in industrial sector are classified as workers directly employed by factories; at the all-India level, this proportion is around 48 per cent. Therefore, the gender break-up of the industrial sector in other states could differ more, if women’s proportion in workers employed through contractors is higher.

Sectors that women thrive
Textiles, apparel, footwear and tobacco employ nearly 70 per cent of women industrial workers in the state. The large presence of these typical labour-intensive industries, where traditionally women’s share in sectoral employment has been high, has raised women’s share in overall industrial employment in Tamil Nadu compared to other states.

These traditional industries, however, are not technologically intensive and tend to be low on innovation. As a result, labour productivity and wages tend to be lower in these industries, relative to wages in innovation and tech-based sectors such as automobiles and electronics.
Therefore, it is no surprise that female industrial workers earn roughly 20 per cent less than male workers in Tamil Nadu while the gap is lesser in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Need a shift in women employment policy

The government of Tamil Nadu has been proactive in raising women employment. In 2021, it released the state policy for women employment outlining several measures, including enabling women to work night shifts and higher training subsidies. The policy focus now needs to shift towards two broad aims.

First, enabling the increase in share of women workers in supervisory and managerial roles in factories. The state needs to encourage research to formulate policy measures to help women transition to higher-level positions from the shop floor. For example, do childcare breaks from paid work, lower women’s chances of promotion; or is there an inherent bias against women supervisory staff in the industrial sector?

Second, more must be done to support women’s entry into more productive industrial sectors such as automobiles, durables manufacturing and electronics. Recent media reports suggest that such a shift is beginning to happen, which is a positive for raising wages.

Young girls are moving towards services

Younger women of age group (20-29 years) are shifting more towards services. Estimates based on the Periodic Labor Survey data for 2018-19 suggest that 9.6 per cent of women, in 20-29 age group, were employed in industry, while 12.5 per cent were employed in services. With rising education levels, such shifts to services employment are inevitable. The state government, therefore, needs to understand occupational segregation and wage differentials between genders in the service sector – the proportion of women employed in low skill service occupations such as housekeeping, retail shops versus those employed as IT engineers, data operators, financial services, and so on.

Childcare support and gender roles…

Apart from public policies that directly raise women employment, such as changes in labour laws, the state needs to enhance affordable and quality childcare support, especially in urban areas. Further, while the state allows free commute for women, improving the connectivity and speed are of utmost importance since the time trade-off is crucial.

Social norms continue to dictate that women are primarily responsible for household work, even if they are employed. It would be useful for the state to launch pilot interventions at the school level to discuss issues surrounding gender responsibility of household chores, women’s control over their income, decision-making autonomy, domestic violence and so on. The interventions which are found to be successful could be scaled up.
Most critically, at the state and country level, sufficient productive job creation to match the aspirations of an educated young population would hold key to raising women employment. When jobs are scarce, women tend to stop looking for paid work, which is unlikely to change anytime soon.