The blue-collar workforce has witnessed several transformations in India with little participation by women in the male-dominated industry. The data collated by Economic Times shows that women's participation in blue and grey-collar jobs has increased only around 1% in the past six years.
BetterPlace, the workforce management platform took a sample size of 102,905 persons which shows that as of December 2022, women's participation in blue and grey-collar jobs stands at 13.2%, while it was 11.96% in 2017.
Experts have suggested some ways to increase women's participation in the blue and grey-collar workforce.
Dr. Nandita Krishan, Vice President- OD Consulting & Facilitation, Marching Sheep said, “Even though women contribute to nearly half of our country's population, yet their participation in the labor market has always remained challenging. Women's participation in the workforce has been hovering between 11% and 13% for some time now. While post-Covid, the numbers have increased, it is still a matter of concern in industries like manufacturing, logistics, and mobility.”
“Despite the fact that various studies have shown that increasing woman participation in blue-collar jobs by even a minimal 10%, has the potential to add $770 billion to India's GDP by 2025-26, the participation of women in India's blue and grey collar jobs, which means jobs which are mostly manual in nature, has increased by only 1% in the last six years,” Krishan said.
“There are many factors that add to this negligible increase in women participation, causing a leaky bucket in these jobs. The need of the hour is adequate skill training, flexible work hours, enabling policies, a safe environment for women to grow and thrive, and awareness and sensitization among employees and managers for an inclusive and equitable work environment,” she added.
Kiran Dham, Globus Infocom Limited CEO said that if a woman is self-confident and clear about her goals she can outshine anywhere and in any industry. The same is the case with blue or grey-collar jobs where women are joining the corporate world and making a difference in the workplace.
“Even now we see women in the tech- industry in different roles and at various levels. Though the percentage of women is still not encouraging hence would wish to see more women in this industry and carving a niche for themselves and contributing effectively in this domain as well. Be your own competition. Learn each day and challenge yourself each day. For sure that would bring the best out of you,” Dham suggested.
Gigchain Founder Trina Das the flexibility and nature of gig work allow for many women to participate but a lot more awareness is needed from companies like ours. Not just college students and young mothers but also grandmothers and mothers-in-law are using their free time for gig work and they enjoy being able to take up tasks and earn from it.
“We need to promote more such gig work and a lot more promotion and awareness activities are needed to enable women's participation in this economy,” she added.
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