Woman power diminishes in state’s industrial sector

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Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey TNN

Kolkata: It seems West Bengal is not a suitable place for women to live in. After topping the chart of crime against women in the country, the state has now ranked last in a national survey on the number of female workers in the manufacturing units.
The main reason for this, as the survey states, is the fact that male workers in the state are paid several times more than their female counterparts. The survey was conducted by the Central Statistical Organization, a wing of the ministry of statistics.
According to the survey that was conducted for 2009-10, only 2.2% women in Bengal work in the manufacturing sector as against the national average of 20%. Kerala leads the tally with a women workforce of a whopping 65%. Manipur, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu follow Kerala with 43%, 41% and 41%, respectively.
In Bengal, the maximum number of women is found in units related to manufacturing of jewellery, medical instruments and sports goods. Around 8.9% of women are employed in these units. Other units where women workforce has significant presence include apparel manufacturing (8.4%), pharmaceuticals (7.83%), computer and electronics products (6.8%), tobacco (6.18%) and coke oven products (5.6%). The survey has covered an estimated 6,818 factories that are operating in Bengal.
The survey also contains details of the wage differences between male and female workforces and cites it to be one of the main reasons for deterring women from joining manufacturing units in Bengal. In some cases, the gap is as wide as Rs 60,000 annually.
The survey says that in the coke and refined petroleum products units, while a male worker gets Rs 3.32 lakh annually, a female worker is paid Rs 2.71 lakh. In case of the leather products manufacturing units, a male worker gets Rs 70,212 while a female worker gets Rs 40,414 annually. Again in the tobacco units, while male workers get Rs 38,590, female workers are paid only Rs 12,350.
“This was the result of a painstaking and laborious survey. We did not stop at just collating the data nationally, but the social impacts of the survey were discussed by top statisticians and social scientists of the country. We had top economists like KC Krishna, R Nagraj and BN Goldar deliberate on the issue of women’s participation in the industry. Bengal has finished last not only because of poor pay structure, but also because of a long social conditioning that discourages women from joining the industry and turn to agriculture instead,” said Bivas Chowdhury, CSO director.
Sunanda Mukherjee, chairman of the State Women’s Commission, felt women should not be blamed for their social conditioning. “Industrial units will always prefer to employ a man instead of a woman. Bengal, despite its progressive outlook, has always tried to keep its women workforce behind doors,” she said.
Writer Suchitra Bhattacharya said that such a survey should be an eye-opener to us. “What was just a notion has now been proved statistically. Our policy makers should sit up and take note,” she added.