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The Constitution of India has recognised the right of women to equal employment. Article 14 lays down the equality before law of all citizens and Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion, race, etc.,for more....

II. Women workers in In-Formal Sectors
(Agricultural workers/construction workers/others)

a. Domestic Workers:
'Domestic Worker' means a worker employed to do housework. It was realised that migrant women workers from slums were the only earners in the family and about 95 per cent of them were all earning their living through domestic work, that is they were selling the only skill they had of cheap domestic labour to the high-rise apartments around the slums. About 78 percent of these domestic workers were women. It was realised that these women domestic workers were helpless and had to come to terms with the exploitation in their place of work. The struggle first began with personal representations and dialogues with the individual employers. Later, a draft bill was prepared. This drafting bill was first drafted in 1994 and it was the result of the efforts of three Mumbai based NGOs.

Unorganised sector is marked by daily wages; insecurity of job; no holidays; work under hazardous conditions; no written contract of work; no job specification; no overtime or bonus; bad working and living conditions; no safety standards at work site; no welfare or medical facilities; and health problems due to exposure to the sun, to cement, to dust leading to health problems like biomossis or silicosis and so on.

A woman's job is always considered secondary to that of a man. Women join as helpers or as unskilled workers only, although they become skilled. These women work along with their husbands and children. They come from the villages with their families whereas skilled male workers come independently.

One major problem these women workers face is that the do not get equal or minimum wages even though the Equal Remuneration Act or the Minimum Wages Act provides for it. The employer tries to employ less than twenty workers, so the Contract Labour Act is not applied. While visiting the sites, we found that their income is always counted in pairs like Rs.106/- for a pair or Rs.110/- for a pair. In this way, a man get Rs.60/- whereas a woman only gets Rs.40/-. When an attempt was made to give some training in `masonry skills' to some of these women, they would not come. The main reason was that they were very frightened that if they became masons,l they would never get any owrk after that. They fear that the unions will cease to employ them once they acquire the rank of skilled masons (workers). therefore, the women join as helpers and would like to continue as helpers all through their lives. Another major problem of women workers is access to and retention of employment. About 15-20 women stand at various `nakas' in Mumbai. One mukadam (middleman) comes and takes about 3-4 of them. To get the jobs, these women have to be in the good books of the employer. they have to just loiter around the employer, do a little bit of flirting with him and only then will they get the work. There are hundred such `nakas' in Mumbai and women stand there. It has bee nobserved that if they do not get work, they have to revert to prostitution, because of sheer necessity.

Getting their rights is very difficult, due to illiteracy and also due to the fact that the employers keep on changing. Besides different Acts are implemented by different departments and there is no coordination among the departments and among the workers. Yet another reason is due to very nature of the industyr 0 the shifting employer-employee relationship, seasonal and discontinuing nature of employment, the general apathy and indifference of the labour administration, lack of labour organisation.

The National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation for Construction Workers (NCCCL) has submitted a draft bill to the Petitions Committee of the Lok Sabha in 1986. This bill intends to regulate the construction workers and provide them with welfare facilities and society security. (*)
Even after ten years of the struggles of this campaign, no legislation has come through. Some ordinances have been passed like the Building and Construction Workers Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service Act. There have been protests against this ordinance and everybody is hoping for the legislation to come through.

Related laws:
-Equal Remuneration Act
-Minimum Wages Act
-Contract Labour Act (Women)
-Health Safety and Welfare at Work Act.
-The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, 1971.
-Employment Protection Consolidation Act 1978
-Employees State Insurance Act
-THE DOMESTIC WORKERS CONDITIONS OF SERVICE BILL, 1994
-Plantation Labour Act, 1951
-The Factories (Amendment) Act, 1976
-The Beedi and Cigar Workers' (Conditions of employment) act
-Employees Provident Funds and Family Pension Act

To realise the Constitutional mandate of equality for men and women, women must be actively associated with national development and there should be a policy for promoting women's employment and protecting women's rights at the workplace...................for more

CRITICAL AREAS OF CONCERN AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEGAL INTERVENTIONS
-Compiled by Ms. Asha Bajpai

Legal systems and laws have not kept pace with the evolving social situation and it is necessary to modify them in keeping with the changing social and economic scenario.

OCCUPATIONAL AND HEALTH RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND LEGAL PROTECTION
-by Malini Karkal
The health of an individual is closely linked to his /her status in the society. Women universally have a lower status. The society ascribes different attitudes, feelings, values, behaviours and activities to the two sexes. Women are seen only in their reproductive roles and their productive roles are completely ignored. There is enough evidence to show that almost all the women are economically active. However, majority of them work in the unorganised sector and consequently get hardly any benefits made by the provisions of the law. Women get less money for their work, get no medical and other benefits that the employment rules provide. Women are also not protected by the rules of working hours or the leave benefits. Women have a double disadvantage because of these discriminations and also because women bear a triple burden of reproduction, production and domestic work. Each of these has its own problems and women having to perform all three of them, besides being denied proper working conditions, has resulted in a complex situation which is reflected in poor health for women.
.....for more click here..

Women Workers - Worked related health problems
Stress
Mental Health

Other articles on Women Worker's Health
Gender inequalities are the root of the problems women face in India 2002-01-24
The low status of women in India leads to lack of economic power, deprivation of legal rights, ill health and the reproductive stress of producing sons. It also makes women vulnerable to extensive prostitution and trafficking. click for more...

Occupational health of women - M. H. Fulekar, India
"Health may be defined as an adjustment of the individual to his/her physical, mental and social environment rather than the absence of disease." click here ...

"A problem which is very difficult to quantify is the threat to women’s health, particularly their mental health from sexual harassment they may suffer in the work environment " .Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Self Help Groups (SHG)
CARE- HELPS POOR WOMEN TAKE THE CREDIT
SEWA-Self employed women's association,an organisation of poor,self-employed women's workers.The goals of
the largest NGO in india are to organise women workers ...

Notes/References:
*For details of the draft bill, you may refer to the paper on Construction Workers.
(construction worker notes is taken from CED Ref: B.A21b.B60)

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