Women at the Threshold of Globalisation by Narendar Pani Nikky Singh

Author:Narendar Pani, Nikky Singh [Narendar Pani, Nikky Singh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138662520
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Source: Prepared by the authors.

Once the norms were maintained, however, the pressures of global competition ensured that the wages were kept as close to the minimum wage as possible. Over 85 per cent of the workers in the industry earned a wage that was less than ₹4,000 per month, and this went up to over 94 per cent when we looked at women workers alone. And if we looked at salary patterns as age increased, there were clear signs that women faced a glass ceiling at a rather low level of income as well as at a relatively young age. Less than 1 per cent of the women earned salaries of over ₹7,500 per month. And they reached this ceiling by the time they were 35. Close to 99 per cent of the women workers who were 20 years or younger earned less than ₹7,500 a month; indeed, they all earned less than ₹5,000. When we looked at the 31–35 age group, the number earning less than ₹7,500 declined, if marginally, to 95 per cent, with a little less than 4 per cent of this group earning above ₹5,000. Once they were above the age of 35, 100 per cent of the women earned ₹7,500 or less.

The glass ceiling becomes even clearer when we compare the earnings of men and women in the industry. Close to 30 per cent of the men in the industry earned over ₹7,500 per month, compared to less than 1 per cent of the women. Not surprisingly, the average salary for men was more than twice that for women — ₹6,464 to ₹3,121. Thus, while the workplace was numerically dominated by women, in terms of the more paying jobs, and hence control, it was, dominated by men. The glass ceiling was reinforced by women workers themselves often preferring male supervisors. Najma, for instance, had no doubt that women who had a good command of the entire garment process, who could stitch an entire shirt, and who could also help with creating the samples could become supervisors. But she added, ‘Male supervisors understand our problems better. The female supervisors tell us that they have children too.’

The workplace also reflected other differences in earning patterns. While all social groups could be found at the lowest earning levels, some tended to have a relatively greater presence than others. Over three-quarters of the Muslim women workers earned less than ₹3,000 a month. And their average salary, at ₹2,915 per month, was significantly lower than that for all other social groups. This pattern was only a little better for Scheduled Castes, with nearly 67 per cent of them earning less than ₹3,000 a month and the group earning an average salary of ₹3,040 a month. The income patterns of Hindu women workers unwilling to state their caste captured the wide variations in this group. The earning pattern of the bulk of the women in this category strengthened our earlier apprehension that this group included Scheduled Caste women who were overwhelmed by the presence of caste Hindu women around them and were hence unwilling to state their caste.

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