Jobs forwomen symbolic

Socio-cultural conditions must change

The chief minister of Odisha and leader of the Biju Janata Dal, Naveen Patnaik, is reserving 33 per cent of his party's tickets for the Lok Sabha elections for women. It has certainly posed a challenge for his political rivals. But he has to address a challenge nearer home himself: getting women candidates for seven of 21 Lok Sabha seats may be considerably easier than filling 33 per cent seats with women in the assembly. The Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, is obviously of the same mind. He has promised 33 per cent reservation for women in Central jobs in addition to the revival of the lapsed women’s reservation bill if his party is elected.

But is reservation the way out? In spite of better education and health, Indian women are dropping out of the labour force at a shocking rate, making up only 27 per cent of it at the end of 2018. Inherited arrangements that make women’s unpaid work in the home fundamental to the functioning of society — forcing women out of work or towards irregular, unorganised work with low wages — together with violence in the home and outside are driving them out. Making workplaces secure and convenient for women would be a major step towards bringing women out to work. Just reservation — in any sphere — is far from enough.