Reducing gender gaps and increasing women’s empowerment are part of SDGs.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has been pivotal in
providing financial autonomy to women in rural areas but in urban areas realities are
different because some factors inhibiting urban women to enter the workforce such as:
● Social Norms
● Lack of safety and
● Hostile transportation options
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) pegs women’s employment rate in urban areas at
22.9% in the last quarter of 2023.
High Unmet Demand for Employment Among Urban Women
There are mainly three reasons due to which unmet demands are prevailing:
1. The unemployment rate in urban areas, which is a measure of how many would like
employment (irrespective of whether they are seeking or not), is 9% compared to 4%
in rural areas.
2. There are two types of unemployed individuals who would like to work and are
actively seeking a job versus those who would like to work but may not be actively
seeking a job.
3. Nearly 25% of urban women have completed higher secondary education compared
to 5% in rural areas, it also points to wastage of much potential.
To Address Urban Unemployment
To counter urban unemployment some states have an urban employment program and other
ideas such as:
1. Decentralised urban employment.
2. Training schemes like National Women’s Urban Employment Guarantee Act
(WUEGA). Where women form at least 50% of the programme management staff.
3. Involvement of local community women also strengthened the constitutional mandate
of decentralisation.
4. Each worksite has essential worksite facilities including childcare facilities.
5. Work must be available within a 5km radius and public transportation must be free for
women.
6. A detailed list of possible urban works such as plantation and harvesting reeds on
floating wetlands already exist.
7. Incentives such as automatic inclusion in welfare boards can be created.
8. Boards should act as agencies to provide maternity entitlements, pensions, and
serve as resources for emergency funds.
9. Apprenticeship for women college students from different disciplines could be done.
10. Regular capacity building initiatives to compensate for the gap in skills.
Women Led Initiatives in Urban Areas
There is precedence of initiatives which are led by women and show us a tremendous
example of women empowerment. For instance, In Karnataka, Women handle end to end
waste management in gram Panchayats of selected districts including collection and driving
of the ‘Swachh’ vehicles. Not only has the initiative been a success, it has also enabled
several women to acquire driving licences.
The benefits of this act far outweigh fiscal conservativeness. It is also time to move from
income as insurance to assurance of income, especially for women.
