Gender Equality and Social Dialogue in India
This paper is a part of a comparative research project whose objective is to demonstrate that gender equality and social dialogue are mutually beneficial and their promotion should go hand-in-hand. This study provides valuable information on India’s progress to improve its equal employment opportunities for women and men through its legislation, policies and social dialogue.
Notwithstanding several achievements, the Indian society is still marred by inequality, in particular based on gender and social origin. National tripartite forums in India are not yet fully representative of the workforce, nor do they deal with gender equality issues in substance. Despite the challenge that the large informal sector represents for collective bargaining, the authors have presented some innovative practices of negotiation with cooperatives representing informal workers, in addition to a pioneering analysis of several branch collective agreements that contain provisions related to gender equality.