Today, women in India are just as capable and employable as men. However, a number of critical sectors, such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare continue to lag behind in female workforce participation.
According to the ‘India Skills Report 2020’, the last two years have seen female employability in the country improve by as much as 9%, from 38% in 2017 to 47% in 2019. The gender-wise employability rates have also become nearly equal, at 46% for men and 47% for women.
Despite this, India is currently one of 10 countries in the world which have the lowest female labour force participation rate. Additionally, women in India also receive significantly lower remuneration for the same job, compared to men.
The report states, “The increase in the number of job-ready women presents an opportunity for India Inc to harness their talent and engage more women in jobs as this is the most essential step in filling the skill gaps in the country.”
The survey showed that while BPO, KPO, IT, and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services & Insurance) sectors boast of the highest women’s contribution, at more than 30%, the automotive and healthcare sectors have the lowest contribution by women. This shows that the overall female participation rate in the country is still incredibly low. In fact, the men to women ratio in the corporate world is extremely unbalanced, and skewed unfairly, at 71:29.
Therefore, in the years to come, organisations must redouble their efforts and focus on hiring more women, in order to efficiently leverage the potential they possess, and create actualised gender parity.
Content Team
Himanshu
Shree Lahiri
