Oxfam just confirmed India's biggest worry

NEW DELHI: Lack of quality jobs and increasing wage disparity are key markers of inequality in the Indian labour market, Oxfam India's latest report, 'Mind The Gap - State of Employment in India', has said.Pointing to a decline in rural jobs, the report also says regressive social norms continue to hamper women's participation in the workforce. On an average, women are paid 34 per cent less than similarly qualified male workers for performing the same tasks. In 2015, 92 per cent of women and 82 per cent of men earned a monthly wage less than Rs 10,000 in India, the report says. 68639285 "Despite the rhetoric of job creation and ensuring gender justice, ground reality is sobering. The report draws particular attention to women being left out of the economic growth narrative, a consequence of poor policy choices and lack of investment in social security and infrastructure," Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said.Highlighting questions over India's growth data and emphasising that they do not reflect in the growth of jobs, it also says the largest number of jobs were generated in the unorganised sector.Job generation was adversely impacted, the report says, after demonetisation, and hit the women workforce most. Women, it says, were forced to move out of the labour force to make way for men to get the few jobs that were available. Post-demonetisation period also saw a drop in households with two or more persons employed. Between January and October 2016, households where two or more persons were employed was 34.8%. This dropped to 31.8% post-demonetisation, with women workers becoming the first casualties of job losses.The report also presents a grim picture of social realities, saying caste and class continue to play crucial roles in determining employment for men and women, especially in stigmatised vocations like sanitation, rag-picking, and jobs in the leather industry.In rural India, for instance, traditional occupations continue to be determined by castes. Women belonging to the Mahadalit community, for example, assist with child-birth, while richer Baniyas own shops. Discrimination also exists in terms of market participation; milk produced by Dalit families, for instance, fetches a lower price.The Oxfam report, however, suggests economic factors can be improved by way of policy interventions. It advocates a shift in development focus towards labour intensive sectors to create more jobs and pushes for better work conditions to make jobs more inclusive. The report also pushes for substantially higher investments in health and education to improve productivity."National Achievement Survey found students from state education boards do considerably worse than those of independent national boards that cater to the richer, better schools. Even within the public education system, there are glaring inequalities in educational investment. Government sponsored Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) spend Rs 27,000 per student whereas non KV government schools spend a mere Rs 3000 per student," the report says.

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