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Green Jobs - Creating
Opportunities for Women
Introduction Gender Disparity in Employment In India, the employment1 situation presents a highly skewed scenario, which is terribly biased against women. Overall (urban and rural areas combined), the work participation rate of women has remained less than half of that of the male. This male-female disparity is much higher in the urban areas than in the rural areas. National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data for the years 1987-88, 1993-94, 1999-2000 and 2004-052 reveals that the overall female work participation rate has remained stagnant over this period, while that of the male has increased slightly. Chart-1 shows it in details. The situation clearly indicates that mainstream economic systems have opened up very little job opportunities, particularly for the rural women. This vast population of unemployed and underemployed female labour force can be provided meaningful employment in the green sectors.  Identifying Green Sectors The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines green economy as that which “does not generate pollution or waste and is hyper-efficient in its use of energy, water, and materials”. However, the UNEP concedes that such idealised yardstick cannot be used in defining green jobs, as such end-state is still elusive. It provides an alternative definition of green jobs as “those that contribute appreciably to maintaining or restoring environmental quality and avoiding future damage to the Earth’s eco-systems”. Hence it is important to identify such sectors – which we will term Green Sectors - that have the potential to generate green jobs defined as above. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) identifies three sectors of the world economy – electricity generation, fuel supply and transportation – that are prime polluters (40 per cent of world carbon emission is from these three sectors). However, these sectors typically support only a small proportion of the workforce. The UN strategy still prioritises these sectors, arguing that greening jobs in these sectors have the “potential to “radiate” across large sections of the economy and to contribute to the greening of other jobs that make up large sections of the total workforce. It is indeed true that greening of the sectors, such as electricity generation and fuel supply will serve the dual purpose of reviving eco-systems by reducing carbon emission, as well as generating employment opportunities. On account of monopolisation and capital intensification, the mining sector, such as extraction of coal and natural gas, is experiencing steady decline in number of people employed. Renewable energy – solar, wind, bio-fuels – can offer a long term solution to this problem. Evidences3 have shown that the renewable energy sector has the potential to create large number of new jobs (even taking into account potential job losses elsewhere in the economy on account of expanding the renewable energy sector). Employment in the conventional energy sector (mining activities specially) has been inherently unfavourable to women4, with low percentage of women in the labour force. Renewable energy sector does not suffer from such inherent gender bias. Added to this direct effect, the UN formulation argues that using of these clean fuels by the other sectors of the economy will effectively lead to greening large sections of the total workforce5. The Indian context However, there are, at least two inadequacies in the UN formulation, if it is to be applied to the Indian context. First of all, it does not adequately address the issue of the crisis of the agricultural sector in the developing economies like India. And secondly, it does not address the issue of appropriate choice of technique of production of goods and services in the context of climate change and a volatile employment scenario. In the Indian context, addressing these two inadequacies will entail generation of clean jobs in the economy as well as rectify, at least partially, the gender inequality in employment. This is not to argue that greening those three sectors – electricity generation, fuel supply, and transportation – is not necessary, but only to say that it wont be sufficient if the dual objective of environment protection and job creation (keeping in mind the gender inequality in employment) has to be achieved in the Indian context. Crisis of Agriculture In India, agriculture provides livelihood to vast majority of the people in this country. From the environmental point of view, the major threats to agriculture are depletion of natural resources and land quality and climate variability leading to crop failures. Wisely using natural resources and their conservation holds the key to sustainable agriculture in this country; water is one such resource. A participatory approach in water management, with gender sensitivity to promote women participation in managing and functioning of water management and distribution bodies will allow the use of inherent qualities that women have regarding managing/using water. This will create meaningful economic activity for women, while also addressing the problem of water crisis. Sustainability of agriculture will directly secure livelihoods of millions of women, who work as wage labourer in this sector and those who work on their own land. According to the estimates of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the world’s green-house gas emissions – more than the transport sector and a major factor contributing to land and water degradation. As livestock and work related to livestock are mostly handled by women, adopting environment friendly livestock rearing techniques will not only give women a viable and clean employment opportunity, but also reduce green-house gas emissions. Appropriate Choice of Technique Technique of production affects both environment and employment. Instead of going for excessive capital intensive production techniques, appropriate production techniques should be used keeping in mind the employment situation and most efficient use of materials. This will involve large-scale investment in new technologies, equipment, buildings and infrastructure. It will open up new employment opportunity. To tap such opportunity, adequate skills training has to be made available to the women workforce. Conclusion The concept of Green Economy is to create a better, more egalitarian economy and a progressive society. It will lead to greater fulfilment of people’s aspirations, greater satisfaction in work and in life and a joyful experience in human existence. Such a transformation entails, as well as requires transformation of value systems too. Thus, we are not only looking into changes of measurable parameters and variables, but many intangible aspects of our daily lives as well. One of such changes will be regarding the gender issues – women’s employment being a part of that. A simplistic assumption, that such changes will be automatic result of transformation into a Green Economy, will not be realistic. It is imperative that transformation into Green Economy would require initiatives to create space for women; it wont be a separate aspect, but as a part of the process of transforming into green economy. q References: 1. Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world; UNEP, ILO, IOE, ITUC. 2. Women miners in developing countries: pit women and others; Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Martha Macintyre
Sourindra Mohan Ghosh Footnotes
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