Unmasking Disparities: The Stark Reality of Gender Pay Gap in India Revealed

Let’s discuss about the gender pay gap in India, it’s mainly refers to the situation in which a woman is paid less than the men even though she is working at the same level as man and it is prevalent in the contemporary world in many sectors like the film industry, corporate sector etc. and The UN report shows that women are paid 23% less than men.

Exploring Gender Pay Gap in India and the Deep-rooted Societal Factors Behind it

Due to the extreme prevalence of gender disparity in the world the existence of unequal gender pay is normal and there are various reasons because of which it has happened due to the social- cultural functioning of our society, the patriarchal structure of a society and the social norms which are mainly male friendly.

Women do the same work as men do but their work is undervalued even though at times they have to do more work than men.

Even though the number of women participating in the workforce has increased, it hasn’t made any difference in their living conditions and the status which they have. And therefore they do not get greater access to quality jobs and their decisions are also not valued and not given a chance to participate in the major decision making processes.

Examining Gender Pay Gap in India in Employment, Pay, and Representation

Women are mainly employed in the narrow sector jobs or the part time jobs. And are more in number than men in these sectors. Women occupy very few top positions in the present time although a lot of difference has been made since the past but more needs to be done to improve their situation and their status. Providing jobs is not the only solution to this problem but fair wages need to be given too.

Just giving them a position is not of any use if they are not able to use that position with full potential or energy. And one of the major reasons behind this is that women are not able to do full time jobs and have to satisfy themselves with these jobs because of the family issues and the child care problems that they have to face and are the homemakers of most of the families in today’s time too. Most of the high positions are occupied by men in the corporate sector as they are considered more suitable for doing that job than women.

And because of such reasons women’s position has not improved till now they still are subordinate to men and have to work as the puppets of them and of the patriarchal structure. Women need to improve their situation because it’s the dire need of the time. As women account for 50% of the population of the world, their opinions need to be valued and they should be valued as a whole. We need to fight back against gender discrimination by taking certain steps even though they are small steps and one of the major small steps would be to ensure equal gender pay for both men and women.

Now let’s dig deep on this issue of unequal gender pay gap in India.

Gender pay Gap in India has been a grave issue for a long time and it has grown rather than reduced its form over the past decade. According to the world inequality report 2022, men earn 82% of the labor income whereas women earn just 18% of that. And still the representation of women in various sectors like the economic sector and political sector has not increased much and unequal gender pay is one of the reasons for such disappointing outcome.

Reasons behind Gender Pay Gap in India

Gender discrimination – Gender Pay Gap in India

Men and women are not treated as equals and therefore they are discriminated against even though they have the same set of skills as men have and then also they are not given the promotions and bonuses which they deserve.

Participation of workforce – Gender Pay Gap in India

The participation of women in the working Centre is less than that of the men because of the care of the children and their family because of which they have to leave their jobs or take part time jobs in that matter. Family problems at times compel women to leave their job or to take part in any part time job and therefore they are not able to be part of full time jobs.

Non negotiable nature of women – Gender Pay Gap in India

Women are not able to negotiate for better wages and fair opportunities because the opportunities are less in the present scenario. Women are not given that many opportunities to prove themselves so whatever they get they try to be happy with that and continue to do work for that even if that particular job is providing them unequal pay.

Jobs segregation

Women are more concentrated in Low paying jobs like caretaking and administration work whereas men are mainly concentrated in high paying jobs in which they are given more chances of making big decisions and therefore they are overrepresented there.

Limited educational opportunities and training

In most of the circumstances women are not given access to high level education and their sole purpose of life is considered to be a bride. And therefore they are constrained in the premises of their households. And the result of this makes them unsuitable for high skill jobs.

There are various other reasons which lead to this situation but these are one of the most influential and important ones and therefore these need to be rectified.

Now let’s throw some light on the Government Initiatives in this direction.

The foremost Initiatives has Been stated in our constitution , The article 15 of the Constitution which talks about the right to equality irrespective of any religion, caste, creed, sex etc.
After that the provision of equal pay for equal work is mentioned in the constitution through the article 39a which is part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.

The Maternity Benefit Act

As we know that the precious gift of god which is given only to women that is the ability of childbirth is at times a barrier to their development as many women are not recruited to jobs as they will require menstrual leaves and pregnancy leaves which is a major issue in the whole world till now so to tackle this the Indian government passed the Maternity Benefit Act and other benefits in which they have given Maternity leaves to women from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.

The equal remuneration act

This act came into force in 1976 to ensure that the men and women are given equal pay for equal amounts of work that they both are doing. And this act applies and is formulated in public offices and private organizations and covers both regular and casual employees.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013

This Act focus on addressing the issues of sexual harassment against women at the work place which is also very grim issue that needs to be taken into account. And to ensure that women are provided a safe environment for the functioning as this would help them in performing well and to their full potential.

Solutions to Reduce Gender Pay Gap in India

Educating girls and women

Our women need to be educated and they need to learn new skills which would develop their mind set and decision making powers in the present and educated women have the power to take decisions which are good for themselves and for their surroundings so they need to develop a skill set which makes them equal to men and as competent as man.

Equal distribution of work

It should not be the sole responsibility of a woman to take care of the household and the family work. Men should also take the initiative to help their wives, their mothers, their daughters in the household work and similarly women should also be given the opportunity to work outside their homes and be the breadwinner.
The gender roles should not be generalized they should be evolving with the time and with the requirements of the family and the society

Changes in societal norms

The social norms which consider men to be working and women to take care of the families need to change as due to the increasing participation of women in activities different from household chores. In many parts of the country mainly in the rural areas it is not considered normal for a woman to participate in other Jobs. So this needs to be normalized to increase their participation.

gender pay gap in India 2022

The UN report shows that women are paid 23% less than men.

Conclusion

Women are also human beings and as men they also have the same expectations as others. They also want their ideas and their decisions to be valued and their voices need to be heard rather than getting neglected every time. They also try to work to get better results in which they organize their work the same as men. But then also they are not given the due respect and rewards which they deserve and gender pay gap in India is one of the reflections of such discrimination in our society.

We need to understand that we are living in an era where both women and men need to collaborate and work for a better future rather than just discriminating against each other and women have been the major victims of such activities and actions.

And this disparity in various ways would definitely discourage women to do work and therefore this ratio would decrease with time. So we need to focus on this so that we can develop and do great things together for our country and for our collective good.

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FAQ – Gender Pay Gap