Not Enough Paid Opportunities For Women In New Normal

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the already declining number of women in the workforce, explains Swati Rathor

- Swati Rathor

In its 75th year of independence, India has more women enrolling in schools, colleges and universities, even as the number of women joining the workforce is on the decline, shows data. And the Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this pace with women, more than men, losing their jobs over the past year. Among them, many might never find their way back to work again.

Prabhakar Singh, head (institutional business), Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), said: “The most disproportionate loss of jobs because of the Covid-19 first wave was among urban women, who account for nearly 3% of total employment but accounted for 39% of total job losses. Of the 6.3 million jobs lost, urban women accounted for 2.4 million jobs lost,” he said.

Only silver lining: Women in white-collar jobs in services sectors like technology, consulting and BFSI were not hit, said Anjali Raghuvanshi, chief people officer, Randstad India.

In fact, the share of women in hiring increased in H2 of 2020 in BFSI, manufacturing and e-commerce sectors, shared Deval Singh, business head - telecom, IT&ITeS, media and government, TeamLease Services. For instance, BFSI witnessed a rise in women participation from 39% to 41% in 2020.