Indian Women Earn Less And Get Fewer Jobs, Says Oxfam Report 2022

According to the latest Oxfam India report, discrimination in India is to blame for 100% of the employment inequality experienced by women in rural areas and 98.5% in urban areas. Social pressure and employer prejudices contributed to bias against hiring women, according to data published by Oxfam report 2022. Women also continue to face discrimination in accessing jobs, livelihoods, and agricultural credit.

Despite their educational qualifications and work experience, women will be discriminated in the labour market due to societal and employer prejudices, says Oxfam India in its latest ‘India Discrimination Report’.

According to the report about 67% of female wage earners get lower wages due to discrimination. Only 33% women who are offered lower wages due to lack of education and work experience. There is a call for the Government to enforce measures for the protection of equal wages and work for all women including oppressed communities like Dalits and Adivasis, along with religious minorities such as Muslims. The Government should also incentivise the participation of women in the workforce including enhancements in pay scales, upskilling, job reservations, and easy return-to-work options after maternity, the report said.

According to Indian government data, in 2020-21 women made up only 25.1% of the labour force, which is not just considerably lower than many other countries such as Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa, but there is also a huge decline within the country from 42.7% in 2004-05.

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This is alarming because it shows how women are leaving the workforce despite India's booming economy (From Mutual Funds To FDs, These Are The Basics Of Investing You Must Know) at the time. The epidemic may have hastened this tendency in recent years; during lockdowns, when employment was limited, women were pushed out of the labour force.

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The report says the high degree of gender discrimination best explains the existence of a large segment of well-qualified women not "wanting" to join the labour market because of household responsibilities or social status.

"The fall-out of discrimination (Google Settles Pay Bias Lawsuit By Paying $118 Million To Female Employees) in Indian society is not just social and moral but also economic, leading to adverse consequences to society," Mr Behar says, adding that the government, political parties, policymakers and civil society must work together to build a discrimination-free India. The drop in Muslim employment discrimination in rural areas can be related to the slower pace of community educational attainment growth over the past few years. This, in turn, caused endowments to fall and thus contributed to the reduction in the discrimination measure.

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