This Article is authored by Ms. Surabhi Srivastava, our Legal Content Strategist who is currently in her Third Year of LL.B. Course at Law Centre II, University of Delhi.

Delhi High Court in a Domestic Violence case, observed that women leave their jobs to work to cater to the needs of children, husband, and his parents, and thus, to call a wife a parasite is against the process of law and the entire womanhood. While unpaid labour of women is largely unrecognized, undervalued, and even disrespected, the working women who have been toiling in the professional and organized sectors are dealing with many underlying biases.

Recently the news of a 26-year-old Chartered Accountant died due to excessive work overload and stress in just four months of her job joining the Ernst & Young Company.[1] As many similar stories have come upfront, it is noteworthy to shed light on work safety and the working conditions in which women professionals are labouring to the last breath. Work and life balance needs to be interpreted as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, specifically for the working women of India, sharing the double burden of work at home and profession. The serious concerns of women’s labour force include, firstly, the unpaid labour of women which is neither respected nor renumerated, secondly, the inequality of opportunity and payment, specifically in private sectors, thirdly, safe working conditions and the need for strengthening the mechanisms for prevention of sexual harassment at workplace and fourthly, women in decision making and leadership roles. 

These issues are interconnected and addressing them pragmatically needs an approach both legal as well as social.

The aspects of women’s work safety include:

1. Laws for the prevention of gender-based discrimination, specifically discrimination in hiring, promotions, pay, and workplace conditions.
2. Maternity Protection which includes provision for maternity leave, job security during pregnancy, and the right to return to work after childbirth. It is the onus of the employers to ensure safe working conditions for women during their pregnancy.
3. Harassment Protection laws against sexual harassment in the workplace to create a safe working environment and to provide mechanisms for reporting and addressing such harassment.
4. Health and Safety Regulations which includes protection from occupational hazards that disproportionately affect women.
5. Equal Pay laws that ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work and addressing the gender pay gap.
6. Workplace Accommodations to provide accessibility to sanitation, creche facilities and nursing rooms for breastfeeding mothers.

The various laws and regulations, in India, aim to protect the rights and welfare of working women. Certain key laws relevant to working women in India are briefly discussed below:

1. The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976: This act mandates equal pay for equal work for both men and women and prohibits gender-based discrimination in employment.
2. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961: This act provides for maternity leave along with prenatal and postnatal benefits for women employed in the organized as well as the unorganized sectors.
3. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013: This law aims to protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace and establishes a framework for redressal mechanisms to address such complaints.
4. The Factories Act, 1948: This act contains provisions regarding the working conditions of women in factories and stipulates that women cannot work in hazardous conditions and should not work during the night (with certain exceptions).
5. The Labor Code on Wages, 2019: This code consolidates various laws related to wage and salary payment and is gender-neutral to ensure that women receive fair wages for their work

Women in professional work in the private sector are subject to unequal pay and disproportionate workloads, are less appreciated, given less gravity, and face many kinds of sexism and misogyny apart from institutionalized gender biases.

The Hindu’s Editorial dated 23.09.24 highlighted the data that Indian women professionals work the most hours globally, on average 55 hours a week.[2] Mental stress adds to the underlying problems at the workplace, specifically when women professionals have the double burden of office and home, which is a common practice and social obligation in India.

While there is an urgent need for more welfare laws, there is also a need of sensitization about theses pertinent issues in our discourse. In this light, it is unfortunate that the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made an insensitive comment on the death of the 26-year-old CA, implying to normalize the workload and stress while signifying the importance of spirituality and divinity to have the inner strength to cope with such injustice.[3] Law has to harmonize with the aspirations of its citizens and as the current framework falls short of bringing justice to such cases, we need to voice justice and respect for women’s labour.

The Preamble of the Constitution of India talks of JUSTICE, social, economic and political; and EQUALITY of status and of opportunity. While India is amongst the first to give women equal voting rights but there is a long way to go. Justice is incomplete without having economic justice, and equality is incomplete without having equal opportunities for growth.   

The architect of our Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar said, “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.” It is time for our laws to be more inclusive of womankind and its labour and address the gap in equity.

[1] EY employee death: Girl’s father breaks silence, ‘She had complained to assistant manager, but they…’ – BusinessToday

[2] EY employee death: Young professional Indian women work 55 hours a week, highest globally – The Hindu

[3] Nirmala Sitharaman talks of ‘stress management’ after young CA’s death sparks row: ‘What should families teach…’ | Today News