Sadly, in spite of women’s foray into many non-traditional fields, only one-quarter of Indian women, compared to 82 per cent of men, are in the labour market
This year, two women created history by joining the Telangana Southern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TSSPDCL) as junior powerline workers and becoming a part of a workforce that has solely comprised men in the State. The women did so after qualifying tests, including climbing up an electric pole. Still the job didn’t come on a platter. The duo had to knock on the High Court’s door, challenging the corporation’s stand that “such posts are reserved for men.”
Nevertheless, despite such occupational segregations and archaic rules, many women dared to storm male bastions. Surely, Delhi’s Mehrunnisha Shokat Ali is one of them. She has been working as a bouncer for the last 15 years, demolishing the notion that women belong to the weaker sex and need men’s protection. “I was always fascinated by people in the Army and the police. But I couldn’t nurture any such ambitions as my highly orthodox father was totally against giving any of his daughters an education. Thankfully, my mother sent us to school”, reminiscences Mehrunnisha. “When I joined the NCC in school, my father got furious and burnt my uniform. Luckily, by that time, I had learnt some basics of judo and boxing. Later, after seeing a posse of well-built men in black suits in the show Indian Idol, I wanted to become one of them”, she recounts.
However, after her father suffered a loss in business, the responsibility of becoming the family’s breadwinner was thrust on her. Luckily she met Arun Rana, who owns a security agency and a restaurant in Hauz Khas, South Delhi. Rana engaged her in his restaurant as he was “looking for women bouncers to put female customers at ease and found her very capable of easing any tension.” Now, in her mid-30s, Mehrunnisha, who maintains a strict workout regime, has earned the experience of working with many high-profile women and men in the world of film, entertainment and business. She looks forward to launching her own security agency with her sister Tarannum, who is also a bouncer.
Unlike the Ali sisters, for 24-year-old Sabina working for a top global brand in Gurugram, the path was less bumpy. Sabina confidently says: “I learnt martial arts in order to become a bouncer. I am not in the profession for money alone, I get a lot of respect in my workplace. I shall marry, only if I am allowed to work.” Now, the vice-president of a security agency with a pan-India clientele, Sabina admits that “there is a growing demand for women security personnel and many clients consider them safe, more disciplined and efficient.”
The security business is not the only glass ceiling that women are breaking. While, in the Indian psyche, alcohol, cocktails, booze are still taboo words and going to a bar is a strict “no, no” for girls, there are many women like Delhi’s Suchana Bera Sharma, who are breaking the barriers here too. A management degree-holder, Suchana is a mixologist and currently the India brand head of a major player in the global spirits industry. A prolific travel, cuisine and lifestyle writer with a huge Instagram following, Suchana explains that “mixology is not only about creating a unique blend, but delving deep into the history and culture of each drink by continuously educating oneself, along with hands-on experience.” A young mother, she gives the credit for her success to her parents, husband and two siblings and says “more women are now shaking off inhibitions, coming forward and supporting each other.”
Though women at the steering wheel may not be a uncommon sight, but, choosing it as a vocation is. Notwithstanding age-old biases about women drivers, Delhi’s Anjana, Kolkata’s Manasi and Jaipur’s Ganga are professional drivers. Leaving behind their traumatic past, all of them got their training under the ‘Women at the Wheels’ programme of the Azad Foundation, a multi-city-based NGO. Anjana, who has been driving commercial cabs for the last eight years, now confidently says that, “I enjoy my work. I got my heavy vehicle driving licence in 2020 and am ready for any challenging job.” Trapped in an unhappy marriage with a drunkard husband who had no fixed income, Anjana was desperately looking for a job to feed her two children when Azad Foundation came to her aid. Anjana, now, in her late-30s, says that “my life’s only mission is to fulfil the dreams of my two children. My husband no longer interferes in my life, though the separation suit is still pending in the court.” Manasi, a victim of child marriage, proudly says, “I use my Alto 300 car for commercial rides, which I got under the West Bengal Government’s Gatidhara scheme in 2019. This way I can feed my family.” She lost her husband even before her first child was born. Manasi was soon thrown out of her in-laws’ house, while, her impoverished father was equally unwilling to bear her burden. In search of a living, she left her father’s home for Kolkata, got a job at a loan financing company for a paltry sum, which enabled her to put her son at a care agency. In her lone struggle, she was duped by an unscrupulous man with false promises of marriage, who deserted her once she became pregnant. The local church came to her rescue and her life got irrevocably changed once she came in touch with the Azad Foundation. Now, her elder son is in a boarding school, the younger one studies in a reputed school in Kolkata and Manasi is saving money for a house of her own.
While, Ganga’s poor father married her off at an early age, and at her in-laws’ place, she faced continuous harassment, initially, for dowry, and later, for giving birth to two girl children. When she came to live with her husband in his workplace at Jaipur, she attempted to commit suicide along with her daughters when she couldn’t bear the mental and physical torture any more. She was rescued from the railway station and given shelter at a welfare home, where she worked for some time, and put her daughters in an orphanage. Today, her daughters stay with her, study in good schools, and she is the owner of two cars. She drives one herself while the other one is driven by her sister. Ganga says that “I don’t want to look back, and I would like to help more women who suffered like me.”
Amrita Gupta, director, research and advocacy, Azad Foundation says that in order to encourage resource-poor women, who are mostly first generation learners, a flexible training mode is followed, covering technical skills for the licence test, and also transformative aspects like spoken English, self-defence, basic etiquette. On an average, about 300-400 women get training every year and about 50 per cent of them get placements.
Sadly, in spite of women’s foray into many non-traditional fields, only one-quarter of Indian women, compared to 82 per cent of men, are in the labour market, says a World Economic Forum, 2020 report. Worryingly, this is likely to shrink further by 23.5 percentage points in the post-pandemic phase, says Oxfam.
This major gender gap in employment can only be reversed by turning the focus on women in economic revival strategies and adopting a gender-sensitive approach in a post-pandemic world. Only then will we be able to create a ‘New India.’
The writer is former Director-General, Doordarshan,and All India Radio.She was also Press Secretary, President of India. The views expressed are personal.