By: Satyavan Saurabh
The National Skill Development Mission emphasizes that women constitute half of the demographic dividend and women’s skills can be the key to increasing their participation in the country’s labour force. The data shows female labour force participation is 16.9% compared to 56.8% for men; hence skilling has been put forward as a solution. Equipping women with employable skills is a far greater challenge than skilling men. Most women in India have neither social security nor job security. Women are generally employed in low-skill and low-paying jobs.
In India, a higher percentage of female workers than males are part of the informal economy, of which 94 percent are female workers in the informal sector. High informality leads to a shortage of new skills, and new jobs are not created, which in turn leads to a loss of workforce. In the case of the female workforce, widespread informality is added to other challenges that prevent them from participating in work – such as family and caregiving burdens, restrictive social norms, and limits on mobility. We see that there is an inevitable gender gap in skill training as well.
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Despite all this, the government’s initiative for women’s skills has resulted in 30 percent of seats in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) being reserved for women. Specialized National Skill Training Institutes for Women provide training under two schemes; Craftsman Training Scheme (CTS) and Craft Instructor Training Scheme (CITS). Along with these, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) provides short-term skill training and about 50 percent of the candidates under PMKVY are women.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is in its third phase and has trained crores of women during this period. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY), a placement-linked skill development program for rural youth, provides 33 percent reservation for women. The Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness (SANKALP) Scheme for Livelihood Enhancement aim to increase the participation of women in short-term vocational training. It is a supporting program for skill training schemes like PMKVY. In India, 3 out of 4 women do not work, although there has been a steady increase in the literacy rate. Can skills, life and learning support and guarantees of jobs change this?
The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) follows the apprenticeship model for skilling and placement. An assessment by Quantum Hub in 2020 states that NAPS does not make any special provisions for women trainees, such as safety at the workplace, or providing them with gender-friendly infrastructure. Jan Shikshan Sansthan focuses on imparting skills, especially to the non-literate and school dropouts, especially women.
Skill training programs in India are based on traditional gender roles and perceptions of women’s work, mostly confined to home-related tasks and caregiving. For example, courses for women under PMKVY focus on areas such as apparel, beauty, health, and healthcare – this keeps women away from the more profitable sectors. National Skill Training Institutes for Women offers only 21 courses, whereas general ITIs, where male-dominated, offer 153 courses. This lack of diversity in skills training reflects the gender segregation in the job market.
But many of the country’s NGOs train women in jobs that help break stereotypes, thus giving them access to traditionally male-dominated livelihoods, allowing them to access jobs traditionally assigned to them (such as domestic service and care). For example, the Azad Foundation’s Women on Wheels, where women are trained in professional driving, and the Self-Employed Mahila Sangha (Seva) Karmika School for construction workers in Gujarat.
The strategy for skilling includes using local SHGs to identify women workers with supportive families and providing relevant information to these women to encourage them to take up skills. Skilling is needed to cope with the changes of the digital age. Public-private partnerships may be the way forward for inclusive digital skills, especially for women. Like Microsoft and the National Skill Development Corporation, in a public-private partnership, train more than 100,000 underserved women in digital skills. SAP India and Microsoft have launched ‘Tech Saksham’, a joint skilling program for 62,000 female students from underserved communities, to train them for technology-related careers.
Today, the country also needs to integrate life skills, such as communication ability, decision-making ability, and self-confidence, into skilling programs. In addition, women-centric groups for socio-economic support, relevant skills, guaranteed jobs, and fewer barriers should create an accessible gateway for women to enter various sectors of the economy and contribute to India’s progress.
Unless there is focused support for female labour, literacy alone is unlikely to translate into gainful employment. We need socio-economic support, relevant skills, guaranteed jobs, and a bouquet of women-centric enablement initiatives that actively contribute to India’s progress, creating an accessible gateway for women to enter various sectors of the economy. Empowerment of women requires strong efforts on multiple fronts for real financial and social inclusion.
(The author is a Research Scholar, poet, independent journalist, and columnist)
