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Scoop
11 hours ago
- Business
- Scoop
Remove Systemic Blockers To Enable Access For Women To Economic And Labour Markets
Unless we remove systemic discrimination, disadvantages and patriarchal barriers, how would we ensure that women and gender diverse peoples in all their diversities are equitably and justly able to access economic markets and labour markets? Economic justice is critical cog-in-the-wheel for development justice. At the recently concluded intergovernmental meet on financing for development, the outcome document mentions about the importance of "access of women to economic markets, labour markets and the importance of women for the potential benefit that they can bring to the economy, but it does not address the systemic discrimination and disadvantages that women and girls face when trying to access the labour markets and economic markets. These goals cannot be realised unless the principles of decent work and safeguards for fundamental human rights at workplaces of girls, women and gender diverse peoples are not assured," said Zainab Shumail of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). "The outcome document does mention to increasing investment in the care economy and equitably redistribute the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work done by women, the reference itself does not meet the most progressive existing standards in terms of language on care which the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) has set out. For example, the outcome document calls on governments to 'recognise, value and equitably redistribute' whereas the ILO calls to 'recognise, redistribute, reduce reward and represent unpaid care and domestic work'. This shows a missed opportunity for governments to advance normative frameworks and commitments to care economy within the text of outcome document," said Swetha Sridhar, Senior Global Policy Research Officer at Fos Feminista. Let us not forget that the linkage between gender equality, human rights and SDGs is especially critical in the context of achieving SDGs in the next 5 years. We need gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, and bodily autonomy to be reflected in conversations on development and development financing urgently. And as Swetha Sridhar pointed out, without major reforms and restructuring of the international financial architecture, the implementation of the outcome document of fourth financing for development meet, will continue to advance the current problematic financial norms, while economic, gender, and reproductive justice will remain unattainable for women, girls, and gender diverse individuals. Unless we go for structural reforms, stop privatisation of public services – so that public health, education and social support are fully funded – how will we deliver on SDGs where no one is left behind? Governments say yes to UHC but no mention of reproductive health and bodily autonomy? While the document commits to increasing investment in universal health coverage and inclusive, equitable, affordable, quality and resilient health systems, there is no mention of sexual and reproductive health and rights or how this idea of universal health coverage will be rolled out in the context of increased spending on militarisation, added Swetha Sridhar. Mabel Bianco, senior physician activist from Latin America and Founding President of FEIM re-echoed that "if we are not having sexual and reproductive health and rights recognised - including access to safe abortion- it is not possible to reach development." Thirty years ago, world leaders made a promise at the Fourth World Conference on Women for achieving equal rights, opportunities, power, and safety for women and girls everywhere. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action also enshrined that promise to achieve equal rights of ALL women and girls. And yet where are we today? The outcome document of fourth financing for development meet is a setback to these promises made decades ago - and also - fails to deliver on feminist agenda. Widening funding gap for SDGs Based on the current trend developing countries are falling short by an estimated USD 420 billion a year to achieve gender equality as envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals. According to UN Women, this shortfall is rooted in chronic underfunding, ineffective tracking of spending and inequitable global financing rules that divert resources away from the world's poorest countries, where most low-income women live. Reducing gender inequalities and guaranteeing the human rights of women and groups suffering exclusion and discrimination requires a transformative fiscal policy, both nationally and globally. But the outcome document of financing for development meet this year failed on various fronts to address these global challenges. It falls short of ushering in an economic system rooted in care, justice, and equality, says Misun Woo, Regional Coordinator, APWLD. It is also silent on safeguards, corporate abuses and preventing gender-based violence in the workplace and only offers band-aid solutions that perpetuate the violence of capitalism. Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), rued that the FfD4 outcome document was a 'done deal' as it had already been finalised at least two weeks before the meet began, and governments did not make any major decisions that changed the text that had been already negotiated even before the governments began the in-person meet. Lidy said that there was a lack of transparency throughout the whole negotiation process at this meet. Its outcome document was influenced and shaped by the Global North countries - the 'blockers' of any real progress. According to her, absence of accountability and restrictions of civil society participation were major impediments. With no civil society space at this intergovernmental meet, feminists and other civil society activists were forced to mobilise and stage historical actions inside the meeting venue. "Meeting outcomes failed to make any meaningful progress on establishing a global financing framework that was centred on human rights and upheld the principle of CBDR (Common But Differentiated Responsibilities). The outcome document failed to make meaningful progress on environmental harm caused by colonialism, patriarchy, slavery, and resource extraction from the Global South. Outcome document also failed to prioritise public financing for high quality essential services and move beyond an over reliance on private finance to fill in development financing gaps. It failed to address the equity for income distribution. And it failed to call for reparations for the economic and environmental harm caused by colonialism, patriarchy, slavery, and resource extraction from the global south. The outcome document did not take on ecological and climate breakdown as cross-cutting issues. It did not clearly acknowledge the need to phase out fossil fuels', said Lidy. Shereen Talaat, Founder and Director of Middle East and North Africa Feminist Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, lamented that gender equality financing dropped to 42% of official development assistance in 2022 and only 4% of it had gender as a primary objective and less than 1% reached feminist and women rights organisations. Meanwhile, conflict-related sexual violence is up by 50%, as women face war and displacements. Shereen reiterated that the outcome document of fourth financing for development does not matter for people, especially those from the Global South. It only matters for existing global economic and capitalist systems. These issues were discussed at a SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights) session co-hosted by International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) 2025, Family Planning News Network (FPNN), Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media) and CNS. There was a general consensus among the speakers that overall the outcome document of fourth financing for development meet lacks genuine ambition for systemic transformation. It is painfully clear that a gender and human rights approach to financing was not mainstreamed in the text and the idea of feminist values were completely missing. There is a long way ahead for feminist restructuring of the global financial architecture. Top down decision making has to be replaced with women, girls, and all gender diverse peoples becoming co-creators and co-leaders of a gender-just and rights-based economic future. The global financial architecture should be based on care, human rights, justice and reparations. It should replace the current colonial financial architecture that continues to use unsustainable and illegitimate debt as a tool of oppression, and undermines peace. Also, as the Political Declaration of the Feminist Forum organised ahead of the fourth financing for development meet had rightly said, no real financing justice can be reached without an urgent end to escalating wars, territorial invasions and genocides. Let us make frustration our energy We must heed Mabel Bianco's request to not be frustrated and think that we lost (at fourth financing for development meet): 'We lose when we stop fighting. Our challenge is to make the frustration our energy so that we can go on and continue fighting for gender equality and human rights. Most importantly we need to multiply manifold in order to fight at national level to ensure gender equality becomes a reality where no one is left behind." Shobha Shukla – CNS (Citizen News Service) (Shobha Shukla is a feminist, health and development justice advocate, and an award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS (Citizen News Service). She was also the Lead Discussant for SDG-3 at United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF 2025). She is a former senior Physics faculty of prestigious Loreto Convent College; current President of Asia Pacific Regional Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media); Chairperson of Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA received AMR One Health Emerging Leaders and Outstanding Talents Award 2024); and coordinator of SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights). Follow her on Twitter/X @shobha1shukla or read her writings here
Bangkok Post
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Labour and the dynamics of change
The fluctuating international context compels countries in this region and beyond to recalibrate their labour laws, policies and practices. This is particularly critical at a time of great demographic changes, such as declining and ageing population in parts of the globe, compromised by a more transactional and conditional world of "quid pro quo". Thailand faces an inflection point on this front, requiring dynamic adjustments. At the forefront of the context is the relationship between the labour force and related standards to guarantee that "labour is not a commodity" and that the human face at work needs protection in the form of human rights. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the key standard-setter, even preceding the birth of the UN, and now also a specialised UN agency. It has evolved 192 Conventions, with the latest being on biological hazards confronting the health and well-being of workers. These Conventions are complemented by the UN's own family of human rights standards, especially the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The latter is sometimes clearer than ILO Conventions and helps to reinforce them. The most poignant query today is the right to strike, which has proved to be a thorn in the interpretation of ILO Convention Number 87 on Freedom of Association. While some claim that the latter does not cover the right to strike, the ICESCR stipulates explicitly the right to strike and over 100 countries, including Thailand, are parties to this treaty. The issue of whether Convention Number 87 covers such right is now before the International Court of Justice for clarification. From a more political angle, non-democracies are often less comfortable with political rights, such as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as compared with social rights, such as access to education. A comprehensive response advocates respect for the full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, requiring astute and principled diplomacy-cum-levers. The need to avoid a UN silo approach is also important. The UN Human Rights Council has been constructive in recent years to underline that "labour rights are human rights". For this reason, the fate of thousands of seafarers stuck on the high seas and elsewhere due to the Covid-19 pandemic has led to amendments of the ILO's Maritime Labour Convention, and social security is a key concern interrelated with the world of work. Another area where labour at work interfaces with the changing international context is in relation to wars or armed conflicts. Do labour standards apply in such volatile situations? Although difficult, some labour standards, such as the treaty countering forced labour, ILO Convention Number 29, have been applied, for example, in regard to the women abused for sexual purposes during the Second World War. ILO Convention Number 182 on prohibition of the worst forms of child labour also militates against conscription of children under 18. The monitoring mechanism of these Conventions, namely the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, has called for attention to the role of non-government armed groups, which might be using children for this purpose, and the need for countermeasures. Precisely because warfare often creates a vacuum where people are not adequately protected, now all too visible in border areas with online scams and human trafficking, it has become essential for labour protection to go hand in hand with transnational cooperation on law enforcement and pressures for accountability, not only through the UN but also via those constituencies supporting the various warring factions. From another angle, the lens of sustainable development interplays closely with the labour context, and the world is now guided by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. For instance, SDG Goal 8 calls for the elimination of child labour by 2025. While many, if not all of the SDGs, will be unfulfilled by the target year of 2030, they still act as drivers of change towards measurable standards within a given time frame. This year, the forthcoming World Social Summit will be an opportunity to reiterate those goals with more commitments on social protection, including for workers. Another pressing issue is environmental protection, climate change and global warming. This necessitates rethinking labour at work. The ILO Conventions on occupational safety and health, Numbers 155 and 187, have become more important to address working conditions impacted by environmental changes, such as increased temperatures at work and recurrent flooding. New initiatives in this regard include "green collective bargaining" so that labour contracts can be more flexible to assist workers, complemented by climate-change-related paid leave, such as to cope with floods. Interestingly, in the value chain, such as in the garment industry, due diligence on the part of the business sector is now emerging as a requisite for business and human rights, and good labour practices. This requires impact assessment, mitigation and remedies for workers and others affected especially by sub-par business practices. Finally, there is the issue of digitalisation and the advent of Artificial Intelligence at the workplace. The vast pool of gig workers or platform workers in various industries, such as in the food industry, has pressed for a new response to workers in situations of precarity. The ILO is now drafting a new treaty on digital platform workers so that they will be protected by some, if not all, of the basic range of labour rights, such as on minimum wage, rest periods and coverage of accidents. Understandably, the workforce might fear that AI will disrupt their lives and lead to dismissals and redundancies. A preferred approach is thus to plan for AI inclusion to augment the capacity of workers rather than to displace them. For instance, AI will be especially useful for the 3Ds -- "Difficult, Dirty and Demeaning" -- tasks, such as mining, pesticide spraying and various types of cleaning. Another 3Ds also open the door to AI: Delicate, Dreary and Didactic tasks, such as precise medical procedures, repetitive chores and training-cum-education, respectively. There will be a hotchpotch world where human labour will exist side by side with the presence of non-humans, requiring empathy for sentient beings, grounded on decent work for all. Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor Emeritus, a former member of the ILO CEACR, and a UN Special Rapporteur. This article is derived from his address at the international Labour Law Research Network Conference, held recently in Bangkok.
News18
a day ago
- Business
- News18
Number of employed people in India rose to 64.33 cr in FY24 from 47.5 cr in FY18
New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) The number of employed people in the country rose to 64.33 crore in 2023-24 from 47.5 crore in 2017-18, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje informed Lok Sabha on Thursday citing RBI data. According to a written reply by the Minister of State for Labour & Employment, 'The KLEMS (K: Capital, L: Labour, E: Energy, M: Materials and S: Services)' database published by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) provides employment estimates, including manufacturing sector, at all-India level. Further, she told the House that as per the latest annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) reports, the estimated female Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for persons of age 15 years and above, during 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 was 28.7 per cent, 31.4 per cent, 31.7 per cent, 35.9 per cent and 40.3 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the labour ministry had dismissed a media report which raised doubt on accuracy of official jobless data. The ministry said that PLFS is globally recognized as an empirical and statistically robust source of employment and unemployment data in India. It is based on a large-scale, stratified, multi-stage random sampling framework that covers both rural and urban regions across the country, it said. Since January 2025, PLFS has transitioned to generating monthly estimates in addition to its existing annual and quarterly outputs, enabling timely and granular tracking of labour market trends, it stated. The PLFS methodology is aligned with international standards, particularly the definitions and classifications prescribed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), such as Usual Principal Status (UPS) and Current Weekly Status (CWS). Its data collection and reporting protocols are consistent with global practices used by institutions like the World Bank, UNDP, and ILOstat, enhancing its comparability with international datasets, it has stated. As per PLFS data, the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for individuals aged 15 years and above increased from 49.8 per cent in 2017–18 to 60.1 per cent in 2023–24. During the same period, the Worker Population Ratio rose from 46.8 per cent to 58.2 per cent, while the Unemployment Rate (UR) declined sharply from 6 per cent to 3.2 per cent. These indicators suggest greater absorption of the workforce into productive employment, the ministry has said. Notably, it stated that the youth unemployment rate fell from 17.8 per cent to 10.2 per cent, which is lower than the global youth unemployment rate of 13.3 per cent as per ILO's World Employment and Social Outlook 2024. These statistics refute the false narrative regarding widespread youth disengagement, and substantiate stronger labour market participation, the ministry had said. PTI KKS ANU view comments First Published: July 24, 2025, 17:45 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Independent
a day ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Heatwave death sparks protests among European workers
Southern Europe is grappling with a brutal heatwave, creating perilous conditions for outdoor workers. The death of a street sweeper in Barcelona due to extreme heat has sparked protests and calls for tougher regulations from European labour unions. More than 1,000 excess deaths have been recorded in Spain during June and July, attributed to the severe heat. Despite new rules issued by Barcelona City Hall, workers claim these measures are not being implemented and they face sanctions for taking breaks. European labour organisations and the UN's International Labour Organization are advocating for a coordinated international approach to protect workers from heat stress, which they term an 'invisible killer'.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Integration of labour, industrial and national interest is a challenge in age of technological transformation, says Mohan Bhagwat
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday (July 23, 2025) said the main challenge for the country at present revolves around how to integrate the labour, industrial and national interest in the age of technological transformation. He also called for an assessment of the impact of emerging technologies on society and the labour market in a way that it does not impact jobs. Speaking at an event on the 70th anniversary of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Mr. Bhagwat said that equality among the workforce will not be achieved until 'people rise above the interests of their own families'. He added that technology makes the human nature a 'bit harsh' and 'somewhat' reduces the respect for labour. 'Mother-like empathy' The RSS chief advised the BMS officials that they must have 'mother-like empathy' for everyone in the sector they are involved in so that they can give equal love to everyone. Stating that technology cannot be rejected and hence it has to be customised as per the need of the society and interest of the labour field, Mr. Bhagwat said: 'Technological transformation is another challenge. Every new technology brings concerns, will it lead to an increase in unemployment? Will it dehumanise us?... Knowledge-based technology needs to be thought about with the new perspective, that is its impact on the field. It can devalue the prestige of shram (labour).' Hailing BMS as the largest labour organisation in the world, Mr. Bhagwat said it has the responsibility to ensure that every emerging situation benefits all sections of society. 'World is watching BMS' 'The world is watching BMS, and it must rise to this responsibility. How to integrate the labour, industrial and national interest in the age of technological transformation is the biggest challenge for tomorrow,' he added. Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who also participated in the event, appreciated the efforts of BMS to create unity among workers. He said BMS is the only trade union that works based on the cultural and social principles of India. He said the core ideology of the BMS is nationalism and that was the reason why it became the largest trade union in the country. An effective voice: Minister Mr. Mandaviya said as the largest trade union from the country, BMS has effectively raised issues of Indian workers at the International Labour Organization (ILO). The Minister said BMS led all the other Central Trade Unions from India to a recent ILO convention and BMS ensured that all the trade unions spoke in one voice. 'Leaders of other trade unions later told me that the BMS allowed each and every union to place their views at the ILO forum,' he said. He maintained that the present government appreciated the efforts of doctors, nurses and other 'Corona warriors' during the pandemic. He said workers in the country rose to the occasion to fight against an epidemic. BMS president Hiranmay Pandya shared that the 70-year journey of the organisation began in 1955 with the principle of 'Rashtra Hit, Udyog Hit, and Mazdoor Hit' (national interest, industrial interest and labour interest). We have shown the world that labour protesta are not merely about raising slogans, rather it is about constructive nation-building, Mr. Pandya asserted. 'Our next milestone is BMS@100, and we are determined to move forward with renewed vigour and commitment.'
