Maternity Benefit

Key Findings of the Report

Women’s share in the Indian workforce is at 27%, as of 2017

  • Raising the female Workforce Participation Rate can potentially result in the share of women in jobs going up to 35%, and increase GDP growth by 16% to 60%, by 2025.
  • The amendment would have a “high” to “medium” positive impact in 20 of the 30 states in India
  • India could potentially add 6.8 crore women to its workforce by raising the rate of female workforce participation
  • Women with higher educational qualifications are seen to occupy professional roles in about 12% to 60% more cases than men

Women’s role in the workplace is marked by poor statistics across the board.

  • Share of population: 48.5% [61.6 crore of 127 crore]
  • Share of Workforce: 27% [13.8 crores out of 51.1 crores]
  • Share of Formal Employment: 14% [56.6 lacs out of 4 crore]
  • Share of Informal Employment: 28% [13.2 crore of 33.8 crore]
  • 95.9% of working women have employed in the informal sector [13.2 crore out of 13.8 crore]

There is likely to be fewer takers for women in the workplace in the short term [up to 1 year].

  • The net effects of the amendment are likely to be negative, with a potential job loss of about 1.6% to 2.6% across sectors, during FY 2018-19
  • The job loss due to the enforcement of the act is likely to be between 11 lac and 18 lac during FY 2018-19.
  • Demand for women in the workforce will improve, over the medium term [1 – 4 years], provided those businesses that are enthusiastic build success stories for others to emulate
  • Large, professionally managed companies (both private & public sector) and medium-sized public sector companies will actively back the amendment and are likely to hire more women
  • Medium-sized multinational companies will have the most varied response – from being advocates of diversity to reducing demand for female talent
  • Large and medium-sized private companies [especially closely held / family owned]are likely to either maintain status-quo or reduce demand for female talent
  • Start-ups are likely to reduce demand for female talent
  • SME behaviour [across services and manufacturing]is typically likely to vary from reduced demand for women to unethical behaviour of reducing the upfront salary for women.

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