It took the government a good six months to act on the advice of the Investment Promotion Board recommending that women be permitted to work night shifts in the industrial sector. The proposal, now moved by the Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers to amend Section 66 of the Factories Act, 1948 that would allow for this, came last week. Why should an amendment as simple as this, and one that was required, take so long? When women in Goa work the graveyard shift in the hospitality sector, in hospitals, in the media and of late in the business process outsourcing sector, there is no reason that they should be kept out of the factory floors.
The Investment Promotion Board, when it made the recommendation, was quite clear that industrial units requiring highly skilled professionals were unable to recruit women as the law did not permit them to work in the night shift. The example given by the Board was that of pharmaceutical companies that needed staff but could not increase the women workforce due to this rather archaic law that is in force in this State.The Investment Promotion Board was also quite clear that their recommendation came following a request from industrial unions. It had even suggested that it should be the responsibility of the industrial units to ensure security of the women employees.
Specifically what the amendment proposed by the Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers will provide for is allow women to work in any factory or manufacturing process between the hours of 7 pm and 6 am, which they currently are not allowed to work. It is surprising that in current times, such a restriction on women working the night shift existed in Goa. While it is a good move by the government and the Investment Promotion Board, there is still no finality in the decision. The proposed amendment has been kept open for people’s comments and suggestions and will probably be brought to the Legislative Assembly in the Budget session due in March at the earliest. Until then this remains merely a proposal and the discrimination against women will continue. This discrimination against women working in the industrial sector has been stark and the law should have been amended long ago to get rid of it.
Though the Constitution of India through Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, caste, sex or place of birth and Article 16 deals with the equality of opportunity in matters of public employment, women were not allowed to work the night shift in factories until very recently. An amendment to the Factories Act 1948 was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2005 so as to provide for employment of women in the night shift. The amendment that came into existence in 2007 allowed women to work till 10 pm and also spoke of safeguards and transportation for the women working the night shift. The Central Act was further amended to make allowances for the BPO industry. The Narendra Modi government at the Centre proposed, in 2014, to amend the Act again to allow women to work the night shift, but saw some opposition from other parties. President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the amendment last month.
Goa’s proposed amendment could have come earlier. The tardiness of local State governments in reacting to changes to laws at the Centre is not new. But in this case, the Chief Minister is the chairperson of the Investment Promotion Board and yet it took so many months for the Inspectorate for Factories and Boilers to act on the recommendation of the IPB. Other States have already allowed women to work the graveyard shift, and Tamil Nadu has allowed it in textile and garment factories since 2000 after a textile worker went to court over the matter. Goa is behind, though perhaps not too far behind, but it could have been bold enough to allow women to work the night shift in factories much earlier.
