The labor ministry has published its draft standing orders on work from home formalization for the service sector. Experts believe that work from home formalization can encourage women especially from small cities and towns who have discontinued work because of personal responsibilities to re-enter the workforce. The remote working model has completely changed the world of work for women. Also, the future of work looks quite promising for women, especially those that come from smaller cities.
The statistics around female labor force participation show that nearly 50% women exit their job at mid career stage. The talent deficit that is created due to this is huge, which in turn results in fewer women in leadership roles.
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Formalization of the work from home model that is now being adopted by more and more companies will create more job opportunities for women in small cities to re-enter the workforce especially in tier-2 and 3 cities. The main reason for higher employment now in these cities are the women on career breaks and retired personnel who want to rejoin employment on a part time basis. According to a survey conducted by CIEL HR Services, up to 50% women in tier-2 and 3 cities and rural India might have lost their job during the pandemic. However as the country is coming back to a normal level of economic activity, a lot of those women that lost their jobs during the pandemic have now found new jobs for themselves. CIEL estimates there are about 70 million working women in tier-2 and 3 cities.
Many IT firms like Tech Mahindra, Capgemini and CavinKare are expected to hire more women, particularly from tier-2 and 3 cities where a lot of women have lost their job during the pandemic. Here are the steps taken by these companies to create more job opportunities for women from smaller cities:
- Tech Mahindra has built an external marketplace by the name of Flex.ai that allows employers to hire talented women and men who are working as freelancers.
- Capgemini is hiring women from tier-2 and 3 cities to work remotely through its ‘Sakhi Drishtikon’ initiative. Through this initiative Capgemini will be able to hire women in non tier-1 cities. Women, to benefit from this initiative, need to be graduates or postgraduates from technical streams with a few years of experience. Even freshers are considered for entry-level positions.
- CavinKare has reserved some positions, especially for women from tier-2 and 3 cities.
These are just a few examples of how companies are going that extra mile to provide better job opportunities to women from smaller cities. If more and more companies keep joining in and there is necessary help from the government, the future of work for women looks promising.
References:
- WFH’s formalisation to help women in small cities find jobs | Prachi Verma & Yogima Seth Sharma | 5 February, 2021
- Standing orders on work from home | Formalisation of WFH to spur second-career women to re-enter workforce | Shreeja Singh | 10 February, 2021
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