India Discrimination Report:
The India Discrimination Report which is released by Oxfam India highlighted that women and marginalized communities suffered discrimination in the job market.
Highlights of the Report:
- The dataset was taken from the 61st round of the National Sample Survey on employment unemployment (2004-05), the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and the All-India Debt and Investment Survey by the Centre.
- Schedule caste/Schedule tribe: There has been a decline in discrimination in urban areas due to education and supportive government policies.
- Difference in Earning: The average earning of self-employed workers in 2019-20 was Rs 15,878 for people from non-SCs/ST categories, while it is Rs 10,533 for those from SC or ST backgrounds.
- Self-employed non-SC/ST workers earn a third more than their counterparts from SC or ST backgrounds.
- Rise in discrimination in Rural areas: The SC and ST communities in rural India are facing an increase in discrimination in casual employment.
- Women: Discrimination against women is so high that there is hardly any difference across religion or caste-based sub-groups, or the rural-urban divide.
- The discrimination increased for women in this period — from 67.2% in 2004-05 to 75.7% in 2019-20.
- Earning Gap between Males & Females: The earning gaps are large, both in rural and urban areas for casual workers ranging between 50% and 70%. The range is low for regular workers, with earnings of men exceeding those of women by 20 and 60%.
- In the case of the self-employed, the disparity is much higher, with men earning 4 to 5 times that of women.
- Gender discrimination in India is structural which results in great disparities between earnings of men and women under ‘normal circumstances.
