Women still struggle to fight pay disparity across all sectors in Andhra Pradesh

VISAKHAPATNAM: About 47.8% of the urban women in Andhra Pradesh have been engaged as salaried employees as against 48.8% in their male counterparts. The formal employment in women stands at a mere 9.7% in the rural pockets of the state, whereas men employed in formal sector in these parts is almost twofold at 19.5%.


Andhra Pradesh clearly lags behind other major states when it comes to the women's contribution to formal sector in the urban areas. While the national average is estimated at 50.3%, it is 82% in Delhi, 60% in Haryana, 63% in Karnataka, 61% in Maharashtra,59% in Punjab, 52% in Tamil Nadu, etc.

Nearly 47% rural women of Andhra Pradesh have evolved into casual workforce, while only about 12% urban women of Andhra Pradesh contributes to the casual workforce, as per the Union government's report "women and men in India 2022." The Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation released the publication a few days ago based on the data it aggregated between July 2021 to June 2022

When ToI delved into the statistics, the gender pay disparity looks very obvious in all occupations. The average daily wage received by women casual labourers in the urban areas and rural areas stand at Rs 379 and Rs 273 respectively, whereas men captures the major pie at Rs 519 and Rs 488 for urban and rural areas of the state, respectively.

Among the officials working at managerial positions in India, the highest percentage is seen in Mizoram (41.5%), followed by Sikkim (32.5%), Manipur (31.1%), Meghalaya (30.9%), and Andhra Pradesh (30.3%).

The ratio of female to male working as legislators, senior officials, and managers stands at around 43.4% in Andhra Pradesh - the fourth highest among all the states and Union Territories in the country.

Former Rector and economics professor, Andhra University, Prof M Prasada Rao said that women's economic participation will prove a crucial factor in achieving growth and stability equation.

"The higher female workforce can even mitigate the impact of a shrinking workforce. Even though the employment opportunities have improved for women over the decades, pay parity is also a must. Better employment opportunities for women will contribute to broader economic development, for instance through higher levels of higher education enrollment for girls," said Prof Prasada Rao.


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