Centre has not been providing latest data on women employed in central government jobs is therefore understandable. The latest Census of Central Government Employees was brought out in April 2014 for the year ending March 31, 2011. Narendra Modi, as prime ministerial candidate had been promising ‘jobs with dignity for all’ which meant 2 crore jobs every year, but after he became prime minister of the country, even central government jobs started declining.

About 30.87 lakh employees were there in 2011 in the Central government, as per the Census of Central Government Employees, said the Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the year 2020 in Rajya Sabha, out of that as low as 10.93 per cent were women. It showed how the government was afraid of providing the latest number.

Just before general election 2019, Modi government had tabled interim budget 2019-20 in which it said that the estimated number for central government employees was over 36.15 lakh as on March 1, 2019, and showed a 12 per cent increase over March, 2017. Then the BJP came with a manifesto to formulate roadmap to increase women employees in government.

However, the total number of employees had declined as of March 1, 2022 to 31.69 lakh as per the budget papers of 2023-24 under heading “Estimated Strength of Establishment and Provisions”. It has however estimated that central government employment was expected to rise over 34.45 lakh as of March 1, 2023 and then to 35.55 lakh as of March, 2024. Between the general election of 2019 and 2024, central government employees would be declining by at least 60,000. Share of women in central government would also decline with it even at faster rate.

It would be despite the fact that there were 40.35 lakh sanctioned posts but only 30.55 lakhs persons were in position as on March 1, 2021, according to Expenditure Department’s Annual Report on Pay & Allowanced of Central Government Civilian Employees. Over 9.79 lakhs posts were vacant, implying one in every 4 posts were vacant. Now when elections are coming to close, PM Modi has been distributing jobs in employment fairs, to appear to be concerned for increasing employment, just contrary to the real employment situation in the central government.

Employment fairs are being held across the country, and the new appointees are being not only inducted into the central ministries, departments, autonomous bodies, but also in Central Public Sector Undertakings. The target announced is that the government intends to provide 10 lakh jobs over a year. It means that all the new appointments are not being done for the central government where the vacancies were 9.79 lakhs.

Many of the appointees are being sent to CPSEs, but employment in CPSEs have also been declining in the last decade. On March 31, 2013, there were 17.3 lakh employees in CPSEs, but on March 31, 2022, only 14.6 lakhs employees were there. It means, 2.7 lakh employments were just vanished. The quality of employment has also substantially declined in the meantime. The share of casual and contract workers has more than doubled and rose from 19 per cent in 2013 to 42.5 per cent in 2022. In the meantime, the number of casual and daily workers rose from 40,000 to 1 lakh, and contract workers from 2.9 lakh to 5.2 lakhs.

Women’s employment position is far worse. In 2021-22, women constituted 9.1 per cent of total employees in CPSEs. The number decreased to 76,678 in 2021-22 from 80,525 in 2020-21.

The Seventh Central Pay Commission report was accepted by the Central government in 2016, and the Centre had said that the recommendation would apply to 33 lakh central government employees. The number of central government employees were estimated to only 8.5 per cent of the organised workforce of the country providing quality decent jobs with social security provision. It means within six years by 2021, central government shed about 3 lakh jobs.

All these show the huge gender gap in the central government and CPSE jobs, where women’s share in employment is less even less than 10 per cent. However, in the entire labour market the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women in urban areas in Current Weekly Status (CWS) was 18 per cent in the last quarter of 2022-23 that ended on March 31, 2023. Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for women was just 16.4 per cent. It is against LFPR of 47 per cent globally. LFPR as per PLFS for July 2021 – June 2022 was 27.2 per cent and WPR at 25.6 per cent.

Female labour force participation has been declining since 1999-2000 in India, when it was 34.1 per cent which came down to 27.2 per cent in 2011-12, and worsened to 18 per cent in during January – March 2023.

These show that the promises made by the PM Modi and his party for women empowerment and increasing their share in employment are just hollow. Majority of women workforce are in low quality private jobs. If the Centre can’t give women their share in central government and CPSEs jobs, how can it expect the labour market to increase women’s LFPR? (IPA Service)