India seeks to reduce gender gap in the workplace

India is seeking to reduce the gender gap in the labour force through education, training and entrepreneurship development, and equal pay for equal work, said Union Minister Santosh Gangwar at the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting.

Women are entitled for all types of work in all establishments and employers have to ensure their safety and provision during working hours, he said, according to the Press Trust of India.

The duration of paid maternity leave has also been increased from 12 to 26 weeks, he added. 

With the implementation of the new Code on Social Security, the self-employed and other classes of the workforce will also be able to receive social security coverage, Gangwar said.

He added that the voluntary and contributory pension scheme introduced in 2019 for workers in the unorganised sector also provides them with a minimum assured pension after the age of 60.

India has fallen 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries in gender gap parity, according to a World Economic Forum report. 

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Most of the decline was registered on the political empowerment front, where the country fell by 13.5 percentage points, with a significant fall in the number of women ministers, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021.