Are women children of a lesser god?
From daily wagers to tennis players,
women are being paid less than men for the same or similar work. What is
the worth of a woman’s work in terms of monetary outcome? Is it on a par
with her male counterpart?
The Human Development Report 2000 says that women constitute half of
the world’s population, perform a two-thirds of work hours, get
one-tenth of the world’s income and less than a one-hundredth of the
world’s property.
Equal pay for equal work |
From daily wagers to lawn-tennis grand slam winners, women are being
paid less than men for the same or similar work. Women remain the weaker
sex with respect to pay-cheques and employment opportunities.
In India, though ‘equal pay for equal work’ is not a fundamental
right under the Constitution, it is a constitutional goal which colours
the interpretation of Article 14 and 16 so as to be elevated to the rank
of a fundamental right.
Affirmative action implicit in Article 14 seeks to redress imbalances
due to the disproportionate representation of underprivileged sections
of society in Governmental and educational institutions.
Article 16 provides for the equality of opportunity for all citizens
in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the
state. Article 39 clause (d) is a specific provision in the Constitution
stipulating “equal pay for equal work.”
Specific legislation have been passed by Parliament to uphold the
cause of equality of pay. One such prominent law is the Equal
Remuneration Act 1976, which provides for equal pay to men and women
workers for the same or similar nature of work. It also provides for not
making discrimination in any condition of service subsequent to
recruitment such as transfers, training and promotions.
Gender equality quotient in legislation like the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 9 (erstwhile NREGA) also needs
to be mentioned. In this Act, there is no apparent difference carved out
between a male and a female worker. It only talks about “adult members”
who can volunteer to work as unskilled labourers and each such adult
would be paid the wage rate fixed.
The judiciary has also tried to uphold the cause of equality of pay
through its decisions as in the case of Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co. Ltd.
Vs. Audrey D’Costa (1987) 2 SCC 469. In this case, women stenographers
were given a lesser scale than their male counterparts and that was
found by the Supreme Court to be violating the provisions of the Equal
Remuneration Act.
Despite the pro-activism of the judiciary and the legislature,
economic equality is still an unrealized dream in our country. Even
statutory requirements do not seem to solve this issue. In the Minimum
Wages Act, which requires a statutory minimum amount to be given to both
male and female workers, there is a provision for different categories
of work for which the minimum wages are different.
The employers usually club together women in that category of work
for which payment is less. For example, under the Kerala Minimum Wages
Schedule, in agricultural work, women are primarily engaged in the
category of ‘light work’ for which the fixed minimum wage is Rs.72 even
if they are physically fit to perform ‘hard work’ for which the fixed
minimum wage is Rs.125. So, on the face of it, there is therefore no
inequality but effectively women are being underpaid.
In order to achieve real equality of pay for women, I think, in tune
with international conventions like the ILO Convention concerning Equal
Remuneration for Men and Women workers for Work of Equal Value, any
future revision of equal pay legislation should include a provision that
has a wider framework than the ‘same’ or ‘similar nature of work’.
If the value of the work is made the point of comparison rather than
the nature with objective criteria for evaluating this value, women
would be paid equally for the same value of work though the nature of
work might be different.
A major contention often raised is: if women’s work is usually of
equal value, why are employers not slashing their payroll costs by
hiring women instead of men? If they are paying men more than women in a
free market, there must be a reason. Conversely, it is argued that equal
pay for women is not just an issue regarding pay/wages inequality
between men and women but it reflects upon the social, cultural and
political perception of women as being physically and intellectually
inferior to men.
Let us realise that a comprehensive effort has to be made to subvert
the male perception of women’s economic worth and initiate the use of
job classifications established on the basis of the work actually
performed and the value of the work using objective criteria unrelated
to the worker’s sex.
The Hindu |