Farms to slums, women on sharp end of job crisis

A few years ago, in this sweltering corner of western India, the horizon was dotted with hunched, barefoot women swinging sickles all day to cut wheat for the spring harvest.

Now, a giant green harvester clears an entire half-acre field within minutes, allowing farmers to save money and quickly sell the wheat.

Chhaya Kharade, 36, and other women doing lighter farm work were gradually replaced by the machines that now criss-cross wheat, sugarcane and onion fields surrounding Chincholi, a village 190 km east of Mumbai.

“I should be busy now, as the wheat harvesting is going on. But there is hardly any work for me. Almost all farmers are using machines,” Kharade said in her spartan two-room house.

These women, especially those working in precarious informal sectors, are at the sharp end of what economists and opposition politicians describe as a jobs crisis in India. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), 90 per cent of around 10 million jobs lost last year were held by women.

Several unemployed women interviewed by Reuters said they had soured on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to power in 2014 vowing to turn the country into an economic powerhouse but has struggled to create jobs.

Jobs, jobs...

While Modi remains the favourite in general elections that kick off next month, insufficient employment — despite the country’s roughly 7 per cent economic growth rate — is a major voter worry. “Modi’s government has not done anything to create employment in this region. We would like to vote for a party that will set up factories and create jobs,” said Mumtaj Mulani, a 40-year-old woman who was plucking weeds from a pearl millet field in the area. She said she usually struggles to find work due to the spread of machines.

The dwindling female labour participation rate could have far-reaching implications for the country’s economic development and the progress of women’s rights in the often deeply conservative country.

“When nearly 50 per cent of the labour force is unable to live up to its potential, India is foregoing significant growth, investment, and productivity gains,” said Milan Vaishnav, Director of the South Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment. “The social costs, while less tangible, are nevertheless acute,” Vaishnav added, noting research suggests women’s economic empowerment reduces inequality and ensures women have a greater voice in society. Measuring the problem is tricky, and Modi’s government has delayed the release of controversial jobs data.

But the official report, leaked to a business daily in February, shows the female labour participation rate was merely 23.3 per cent in 2017-2018, down about 8 percentage points from 2011-2012.

Private estimates are gloomier. CMIE puts the figure at just 10.7 per cent between May and August 2018.

Note ban and GST

To be sure, the loss of jobs to machines is a global issue, but Indian women have a more limited range of alternative work than their male counterparts. And in the family-focussed country, women across economic lines often quit work after getting married or having children.

Still, when compared to nations with similar income levels, the country’s female labour participation rate is “a distinct outlier,” according to Vaishnav.

Economists say Modi’s two signature economic policies — a ban on high-value banknotes in 2016 and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax in 2017 — have hurt women more than men because they are more likely to be employed in vulnerable, informal workplaces. Demonetisation thrust the informal, cash-based economy into turmoil. A year later, many small businesses went under, unable to deal with GST’s complexities or rate increases.

“If there are fewer jobs available, who will move out? The women will move out, because they get lower wages. The men will go compete for the few jobs,” said CMIE’s CEO Mahesh Vyas.

In Dharavi, 33 year-old Farzana Begum has struggled to provide for her five children since the workshop she stitched buttons for shut shop in the wake of GST.

“I have stopped all extra spending on clothes and good food,” said Begum. “If you ask anyone in Dharavi, everyone has seen a fall in income, lost their jobs or seen factories close after GST.”

Her dismay was echoed on the other side of the country, in a village near Kolkata, where Nuren Nesa’s earnings from embroidering saris fell from ₹700 a week to ₹300 after demonetisation. Following GST, work ground to a halt and her embroidery machine is gathering dust.

“Modi’s note ban and GST measures have destroyed our source of income,” said Nesa, 41, who withdrew her son from university because tuition fees grew out of reach.

“I will vote for the leader who will help us out with proper work and income,” she added.

COMMENT NOW