The march has been organised by the All India Working Women's Forum (WWF). The Forum embraces in its fold women, young and old, working in fields and factories, offices and various educational institutions. The Forum is stated to have held state-level conventions preparatory to the march to Parliament to focus attention on their problems which have been ignored by both employers as well as the Government. Unfortunately, even unions keep the working women's problems on the backburner. Both the number and problems of working women have grown dimensionally, with the growth of the informal economy, especially the export economy.

Launched three years ago, the Forum has steadily spread across the country. It has now made a bold attempt to emerge from the shadow of its parent organisation, the AITUC, and organised the march to Parliament. The WWF would, of course, struggle along with their working class brothers on issues of economic crisis, exorbitant rise in prices, unemployment, etc. as they have been doing hitherto.

What are their demands? Equal pay for equal work is one; universalisation of maternity benefit is another; a law for elimination of sexual harassment is one of their urgent demands. They also want the Anganwadi workers to be treated as government employees. What shocks them is that women working in various Government schemes to provide services such as ICDS, ASHA under NRHM or those working in the Mid-Day Meal programme are not being treated as workers; therefore, they are demanding minimum social security facilities for them.

National Convener of the Forum, Ms Amarjeet Kaur, secretary of the AITUC, says that even 62 years after Independence and despite the enactment of various legislations, almost 95 per cent of the working women, mainly employed in the informal economy, do not enjoy 'equal pay for equal work'; they are denied minimum level of social security; their working conditions remain hazardous; and child-care services are non-existent for children below three years. And if there are any in place, these are abysmally poor.

It is now well recognised that workplace harassment and abuse of women workers are on the rise; casualisation and contractualisation have affected women workers the most and job security has become a serious issue for women in both the formal and informal sectors. WWF says that women in export-promotion zones are virtually treated like slaves. Unionisation and personal liberty of workers in general and women workers in particular are the first casualty.

The March to Parliament is taking place at an appropriate time in the sense that women know better than anyone else the deleterious impact of the rise in prices of essential commodities like foodgrains, pulses and vegetables on the working class families. The march has come at a time when the “gender bias” of the economic crisis and slowdown has abundantly revealed itself but has not been taken up seriously by the policy-makers. The ILO had, on the occasion of the International Women's Day, early this year, underlined that “in Asia working women will be affected more severely, and differently than their male counterparts”.

The ILO had warned, saying: “For policy-makers, failure to take into account this gender dimension of Economic Meltdown, especially at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, could be a critical miscalculation, worsening the working and living conditions of millions, deepening economic and social inequalities, and wiping out a generation of hard-won gains in pay equality and work-place equality.“ Moreover, it said that shrinking global demands for clothes, textiles and electronics as well as related business services like hotels and restaurants, means that “women will be the first to lose their jobs.”

There is yet another aspect of service sector employment. It is characterised by less remunerative categories such as retail trade and domestic work that employ substantial number of women. Gender-based discrimination is more pronounced in the service sector. Wages in this sector are among the lowest and are not governed by any minimum wage regulations in many States. Even where wage regulations exist, they go by default because of poor implementation by the concerned authorities.

Women's employment in the Information Technology (IT) sector is steadily growing because it is considered to be gender-neutral. However, within the IT sector, many women are engaged in software development and database activities. Neetha Pillai of the Centre for Women's Development Studies says that much of the work carried out under software development in India comprises simple programming through following specified directives. This does not require much creative skill or knowledge. It is most repetitive and monotonous. Software consultancy has shown increased share of women, from 35.90 per cent in 1999-2000 to 50.48 per cent in 2004. Likewise, there has been substantial increase in women's share in database activities - from 7.39 per cent to 40.72 per cent. These constitute the bulk of ITES occupations. But generally, there are few women in hardware design and consultancy. Instead, there are signs of a sharp decline in the share of women in the hardware sector - from 29.75 per cent in 1999-2000 to 0.35 per cent in 2004.

Women working as Safai Karmachari in departmental, public and private sector are the most neglected lot, socially and economically. In rural areas, they work as agricultural workers. Over the years, they too have fought for their rights largely in exclusion from the rest of the working women's movement or the working class organised movement. Their inclusion too requires attention from all concerned with the working women and the working class movement. (IPA Service)