Women and Labour Market Dynamics by Balwant Singh Mehta & Ishwar Chandra Awasthi

Author:Balwant Singh Mehta & Ishwar Chandra Awasthi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811390579
Publisher: Springer Singapore

4.1 Background

Traditionally, women’s entry into the labour market symbolised the need for additional hands required for supplementary income support for the households. In the sequence of development, women who were engaged in ‘traditional’ agriculture were gradually drawn into ‘modern’ industry as wage workers (Sen 2001). This new fond development agenda was strongly supported by the women’s organisation and development establishment, primarily because paid employment was regarded as the most effective route to women’s empowerment. However, it was also argued and discussed in previous chapters that the market agenda was the prime mover for the new industries to spring up in the developing countries. It was viewed that cheap labour force helps cutting down costs and rightly so. Flexible labour force, which could be drawn into and easily dismissed in response to changing labour market demand (Standing 1989; Kabeer 2000).

The relationship between technological change and economic growth has been the subject of intense debate in development economics. It has been argued that technological change has a powerful impact on economic growth both in the short and long run (Mokyr 2005). Solow explored in 1950’s within the framework of neo-classical economic growth model that besides capital and labour, the rate of technological change has an enduring effect on economic growth and treated it as an exogenous factor (Cortright 2001). The same argument was followed by others in 1960 and 1970s. It was only in the 1980s that new economic growth theory developed by Romer articulated and treated technological change as an endogenous factor. This new growth theory viewed technological change as a product of economic activity. ICT sector emerged as a result of technological change or progress and put under the most recent innovation category by Neo-Schumpeterian (Daniel 2002).

Arguably, ICT sector has the greatest influence on global economy through increasing productivity and efficiency of industries and services sector. This sector provides a strong explanation for the growth achieved, which has been much higher growth in the recent period than earlier. It is therefore inevitable to understand the impact of technology changes, i.e. ICT at two different interrelated levels: ICT growth and ICT diffusion (Heng and Thangavelu 2006). The former denotes as contribution of ICT in respect to output, employment and export earnings resulting from the production of ICT-related goods and services. The latter denotes as ICT-induced development through augmenting productivity, competitiveness, growth and human welfare resulting from the use of technology in different sectors of the economy and society. In the present context, at the first level of ICT sector, contribution in the labour market or employment is an important constituent as work, which is an essential part of human life and central to people’s well-being. The second most important element is quality work and better workplace environment, which is necessary to ensure productive work opportunities to both women and men, in fulfilling the conditions of freedom, equality, security and human dignity (ILO 2002).

As discussed in the introductory chapter, the globalisation process in India since 1991 saw rapidly increased cross-border flows of goods and services across the world.

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