Decent Employment for Women In India (2001 - 2004)

Background

In India, women are among the most vulnerable and marginalized group in the world of work. Almost two-fifths of the population live below the poverty line. Most of these are women and the proportion is increasing. With lower literacy rates than men, and limited access to skills and training, women are less likely to find paid work than men. The vast majority of working women are in the informal economy, characterized by work that is low-paid, with low status and little or no security.
Women's wages are at least one fourth less than men's. And women's employment is becoming increasingly informal, across all sectors and most regions. Labour laws are difficult to apply in the informal sector, especially when workers lack the ability to organize effectively. Few women are members of trade unions and associations, and even fewer hold decision-making positions.

The Project's development aims

The project is reaching out to women living in urban slums in Delhi and Banglaore, to bring them into the socio-economic mainstream, and enhance equality of opportunity and treatment between women and men. Its work contributes to an overarching goal of helping to combat poverty in India.
With the Ministry of Labour's Directorate of Vocational Training for Women, the ILO pilot project aims to build women's aspirations, and help them develop the marketable skills they need to find jobs, or become small-scale entrepreneurs. The project is piloting approaches that will help guide future efforts to reach out to larger numbers of women in other cities. A follow-up study, two years after the project's completion, will track women's experiences.
Rapid appraisal studies, needs assessment exercises and community-based participatory approaches are used to gather information needed to draw up socio-economic profiles of women beneficiaries, and examine their training needs. These efforts also explore potential employment and market opportunities.
Female heads of houseshold and migrant women workers are priority targets. The project focuses on improving their chances of finding decent and productive work, and on protecting their status and rights once they find work. Support services are provided to women during and after the training period.
Activities include capacity building for formal training institutes and non-government organizations, to enable them to provide skill development programmes for women. This approach helps build bridges between formal and non-formal training. The process involves developing these organizations¿ training infrastructures, training trainers, and extending and updating content of training materials and methodology. Training modules and and materials include audio-visual packages, designed to meet the needs of the largely illiterate and semi-literate target group.
In both Delhi and Banglaore, non-formal training has allowed women to upgrade traditional skills and acquire new ones. They have been designed to take women's needs into account, including flexibility to continue to meet family responsibilities. A complementary package of support facilities includes counselling, health checks and medical aid, supplementary nutrition and child care facilities.
Awareness raising activities promote fundamental principles and rights at work including gender equality and child labour, legal rights, health, nutrition and education. Approaches have included group meetings, street plays, puppet shows, interpersonal communication and workshops.
Work has been reinforced by supporting the establishment of a resource centre on women and labour at the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute to document and disseminate information of women workers' rights and related skills. The Institute has been asked to work with experts to prepare and test training packages on legal literacy, gender advocacy and occupational safety and health.
In the post-training phase, the project offers support to women seeking employment by forming links with employers, marketing outlets and micro-credit schemes. Women have begun to generate earnings both through wage employment and self-employment. Some NGO partners have established production centres to improve income-earning opportunities for women who have completed the training, and help them produce marketable products.
Some organizations and companies are also offering women apprenticeship opportunities to expose them to work in industry. The project is also encouraging women to form production, credit and self-help groups and associations, focusing on economic activities, social mobilization and social protection.
In order to share information and experiences for future replication, a database on non-formal training facilities is being developed and information-sharing networks are being established linking policy makers, planners and functional-level implementers.