- 2 months ago
In this edition of Newstrack, the focus is on the new labour codes allowing women to work night shifts in India.
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00:00the laws of labor redrawn women permitted to work night shifts but owners of
00:12safety on employers empowerment or exposure can safety and opportunity now
00:27go hand-in-hand top focus on news track good evening you're watching news track with me
00:36maria shakil a very happy new year's a very happy 2026 to all of you tonight we're talking about
00:44something which impacts all of us in one way or the other for decades viewers the question around
00:50women working nights has been framed as a forced choice like safety or opportunity either protect
01:01women by keeping them out of night shifts or open the doors and hope the risks somehow even out the
01:08new labor codes attempt to redraw that bargain they say women can claim the night shift but on
01:15their own terms with written consent with safe transport with lighting security restrooms and
01:22accountability and with the burden shifting firmly into the account now I would say of employers and
01:30the state not individual women to ensure that the night shifts actually work for women so that the
01:37night actually works safe in the context of women from IT parks and hospitals to factories where houses
01:45newsrooms and gig platforms night work is now being recast as a legitimate economic space where
01:53dignity pay and protection are meant to go together not compete with each other but tonight the promise
02:01meets reality because as the government opens a 30 to 45 day window for public feedback on the draft
02:07rules the real test is not what's written in the labor code but whether women who already work these
02:14hours believe the safety net is real will save guards exist beyond corporate campuses and tier 1 cities
02:21and who really is accountable at 2 a.m. 3 a.m. when something goes wrong that's the debate tonight
02:29what I wish to ask is is this empowerment or exposure is it reform or risk transferred to discuss this
02:40on the show we have Tara Deshpande actor writer Somya Misra is an entrepreneur
02:47and founder of Avatar we have Meghna Pan author and gender rights activist Pooja Srivas is an advocate I'm going
02:58to begin with you Tara because it's about shifting the cultural narrative as well because if women work you know
03:09women work the night shifts I have done night shift several years ago we continue to you know work till
03:15late hours as well what does it really do to ensure that women actually feel safe in terms of the larger
03:24cultural context Tara you know just like many things in India we have a law to fight corruption we have a
03:32law to fight sexual harassment and now I'm going to have a new code for working night shifts but we all know the
03:38reality that there are too many roadblocks when it comes to enforceability when it comes to implementation
03:44of codes or laws in this country now you talk about safe transport and you talk about street lighting
03:50these are huge issues we know that in reality transport is not safe for women at nights we also
03:56know that street lighting is not good at nights we also know that the concept of consent in India is
04:01still something that we are trying to push literally push down people's throats it's very different from
04:06what it is in other countries so to now tell women that you know we will provide you with all this you
04:12have to you know give your consent without coercion um where where is the buck going to stop when
04:19something goes wrong who is going to protect these women who is going to ensure that the transport is
04:25actually safe and the street lighting actually exists and that they are not being coerced into doing
04:30something and being told that they won't get promotions and bonuses if they don't give consent
04:35to working at nights I mean the number of cases of sexual harassment and violence against women during
04:41day shifts has spiraled in the last 10 years yeah so what do you think it's going to be like in the
04:47current situation during night shifts okay so while it sounds great it's you know it's progressive
04:52thinking I think actually now the onus is being placed on women and women will now be blamed when they
04:58say that they don't want to work these night shifts because they're not happy with the
05:02facilities that they're being given okay okay but but there are real challenges here uh megna
05:09your work critiques the patriarchal norms does this policy truly advance gender equity or does it risk
05:17exploiting women without addressing uh the vulnerabilities which exist in multiple sectors
05:24um you know absolutely I think safety has now been outsourced to women's courage so uh if we continue
05:31like these these reforms will fail but I have to add Maria that uh it's better news that we've woken up
05:36to in 2026 than the last few years where you woke up to names such as Shraddha Walker being
05:41dismissed by her partner you know Anjali Singh if you remember being dragged for kilometres
05:45under a car on New Year's or Ankita Bhandari who was pushed to her death in Uttarakhand
05:49so I feel like maybe this is a good start that at least we're talking about labour law reforms which
05:54are a step forward but the fact is it only uh you know matter if they move from permission to
06:00protection you know from laws to actually lived safety of women and from this kind of token equality
06:06um that's become so customary to actual structural change because I think the question that India must
06:10ask now is not can women work at night this this feels very odious it feels redundant the real question
06:16is can India finally take responsibility for keeping women safe while they do this because again
06:23you know what are the safeguards Maria I mean what do they actually look like like Tara also pointed
06:28out are they slogans circulars are they posters in HR offices real safeguards must look like logistics
06:35right so we need a few steps for example like mandatory escort policies for late shift uh not on request but
06:42actually like customary then this guaranteed last mile transport you know door to door not just
06:47to the main main road the nearest main road we need verified drivers we need gps tracked vehicles
06:53we need well-lit workplaces and parking areas and building exits not just inside the glass office
06:58more than that we need these functional panic buttons not just decorative ones in every woman's
07:03phone that is linked to the local police or you know the internal response teams we need emergency
07:08phone apps such as this that work not just in certain metros but across states even in you know
07:14uh tier one tier two cities or even in villages across India and we must have a redressal mechanism
07:20where first of all that 24 7 grievance officers with women also represented on these safety committees
07:26not just interns but not just symbolic hires right actual people with clear accountability that if a woman is
07:32in this harm you know the employer is not going to say okay this is not a concern let's be honest the
07:38accountability has to be defined as well uh somya as someone who runs a startup skincare startup
07:47how could these night shift permissions boost female entrepreneurship and what transport cctv mandates
07:55uh would you prioritize for employee safety uh yeah in fact uh uh you know at avatar where you know the
08:04businesses that we provide uh skin treatments at home so it does involve women not only uh you know
08:11traveling uh but also involve them going to different people's home and then you know we have mapped
08:17like okay what could worst look like and then work backwards from there because you know you don't rise up
08:23to oh this has happened and now we fix our norms okay you know how do we ensure that uh whatever works
08:30in our case it's like going to places uh what can go wrong and then how do you control it so you know
08:35be it panic button be tracking okay where all your employees are uh when they are getting late from an
08:42appointment and then they need to go home which would be in most cases in cities like bombay would be
08:46like an hour away from office you know we make them get dropped at home we have an uber for business
08:52partnership where we get verified drivers to do that with our internal tech system tracking it one
08:59person tracking okay has everybody gone home and then on the whatsapp group okay i have reached i have
09:04so you know it's it's it's a matter of intent it's it's it's i mean like it's tough to execute but
09:10like if there is an intent it is not so much to execute either cost wise or you know procedure wise
09:16uh i do think that uh you know uh uh getting women to work at night uh i mean like letting them work
09:26at night uh is a welcome move see the thing is you know when we say that oh you know why should women
09:31be restricted to move out uh uh or be be on streets at 9 10 pm at night you know the the idea should be
09:38okay how do we avoid security threats and not just lock them up at home now the analogy is similar just in
09:45professional setting that you know women should get there are women who uh you know who probably
09:50have figured out their security themselves but sometimes they they are at a disadvantage because
09:56because of you know the other labor regulations which were around them so at least there is a choice
10:01now um and then you know there are there are things like ot double pay cctv so i think i think labor
10:09code wise it is it is a welcome move but what what should be uh you know scrutinized and tracked and
10:15monitored in detail whether all safety measures are are taken yes so the devil lies in the details
10:20certainly i'm going to come back to all of you uh for more thoughts but let me bring in puja as well
10:27could labor code registration be mandated via codes for safety net access and what precedents
10:34uh challenge employer non-compliance uh with overtime or transport rules there are several such examples
10:44um good evening however it will fail as a step if women's security is not taken into account
10:52as an infrastructure so employers and the society should ensure that women remain safe to participate in
11:00the nation building process that's right so women should be safe in participating in this entire
11:08process while we put the owners of women's safety on women herself tara desh pande many would say that
11:16that and i agree with the magna when she says that we have entered 2026 on a progressive note uh there
11:24have been extremely depressing news coming year after year particularly of women harassment
11:30uh every night but uh you know during the new year celebration so this is a progressive way to enter it
11:38but do you see this as a reform tara
11:45i see it like i see many reforms very well meaning uh but how they will be implemented
11:52is another story altogether i i feel that very often a lot of these codes notices
12:00uh you know these circulars that go around are not completely thought through uh they seem there
12:07seems to be a a sort of gap between reality and what one hopes for the best uh you know for women
12:14but one of the things that's very clear is that protecting women is so very important especially
12:18working women because they are responsible not only for the jobs that they do for their employers but they
12:23are also responsible for looking after children and basically bear a larger burden of the work that they do
12:30at home so when a woman is harmed it's a dual attack upon society it's not just the the job that
12:37she's working for an employer that falls apart her whole family including her children fall apart
12:42so i think the government needs to do a lot more and especially you know with all the cases of attacks
12:48on women that have been coming up i mean it's like a conveyor belt you know every day we're hearing of not
12:53one but three or four of the most heinous acts against women in this situation you know with what's
12:58happened with the doctor in calcutta what's happened in in cases in mumbai in madhya pradesh and up i don't
13:06know whether this is really such a good idea right now i think we need to create the infrastructure first
13:13before we uh tell women yes now you can work night shifts there's no coercion you have to give your
13:18consent but tara women do work night shifts it's only formalization of it ensuring that the state
13:26and and and the company owners the management also feels responsible uh because women do work night
13:32shifts i i did my first night shift 15 16 years ago well i've worked a lot of night shifts too yes uh so
13:40i'm you know and i've worked them at a time when we weren't even talking about the meaning of it
13:44so i i totally understand that but i think that expecting employers to do everything uh while the
13:51government lags behind i mean the employer can't make a streets can't make the streets safe he can't
13:56provide street lighting he can't make buses and and and cars safe maybe the bigger firms can offer
14:02more because they have deeper pockets but i think in the current situation when you look at what is
14:06happening even during day shifts women are unsafe they say that 75 percent of sexual harassment cases
14:13during day shifts are not even reported by women so i mean there is i i feel that this is going to uh
14:20make some things harder for women okay we have an employer on the show somya what are your thoughts
14:27particularly with regards to uh with the onus coming on the employers you say that the intent has to be
14:33right but this is also about greater responsibility and has the state shifted the burden on employer more
14:41here because if uh if if if the street are not very well lit if there are challenges of this nature and
14:49their cultural connotations attached also then how do you deal with it i think i think it only uh helps the
14:57case of women and also the employer you know i'll also give an example so in my previous career you
15:04know one of the previous careers i was working with the psu managing a shop floor right last quarter of
15:09every year we used to run three shifts and then every time i would say sign on a works contract to hire
15:14laborers i had to say that you know i can only keep people who can do three shifts so that my resources are
15:21fungible so then earlier women used to be completely out of it now i think something like this only creates
15:27more opportunity you know we're talking about okay streets are not well late and there are these
15:31crimes happening but then are we saying like now now what has got you know what has professional
15:36setting got to do with it are we saying okay you know streets are not well lit so okay you know the
15:40government should not allow like night parties or you know the government should not allow women to
15:45be on streets or you know lady doctors should not be doing night shift because one case happened in
15:50kolkata now the cases would happen it'll be it'll be like a parallel intervention so you you keep fixing the
15:56society now it's got nothing to do with labor profession career all of workplace all of that
16:03now like uh you know like tara rightly said there are there are sexual harassment cases happening in
16:07the daylight now then do we say okay because there are sexual harassment cases happening let's just make
16:13all the women work from home we don't say that right because that is really regressive so i think as
16:18far as consent is their choice is there it is only opening it up for women uh and of course you know if an
16:26employer um i think we've come a long way where we have uh you know where employers have uh
16:32accepted maternity breaks paid maternity breaks um not you know giving uh certain extra privileges to
16:38women because they have their home responsibility dni is the is a norm which everybody is happily
16:45accepted acknowledging the benefits so i think i think employers will take that some good employers are already
16:50doing it you know providing cabs at night like i was to work for bane any women leaving after eight
16:55well was was was was allowed to book a cab for free job all the it companies are picking up and dropping
17:01women at home so um i i i as an employer i think it's good gives me more opportunity okay choose talent
17:08which can work for me um all the time okay uh migna that's a fair point it also gives the women
17:15uh more opportunities i would see this as this way and their participation in economic story growth
17:22story of india also becomes more because you know migna women as it is they they get stuck perhaps in
17:30the middle management when it is about opening the board rooms there is a challenge and if there are
17:36these uh you know further barriers then it becomes even more claustrophobic for women absolutely i think
17:43maria you you've pinned the main issue that women's safety is not just a law and order issue it's
17:47also an economic issue you know and when women feel unsafe they're going to opt out when they opt out
17:52families are going to lose income families lose income the economies will shrink and india cannot
17:57become a five trillion dollar economy while treating half its workforce as optional and you know if you
18:03look at even the workforce today even in 2026 only about one third of indian women are in the labor force
18:08this is compared to i think three quarters of men and most people are doing work on informal insecure
18:14low-paid jobs so when the economy tightens you don't remember during any economic shock whether
18:19it's the pandemic whether it was a demon recession layoffs it's a women who are suffering first and
18:24suffering the hardest and uh let's also remember one more thing that the first to disappear from
18:29payrolls you know and this is not just because women lack ambition if you look at girls in school
18:34they're outperforming boys all the time they're graduating they're skilling up they're showing up
18:38but somewhere between the degree and the desk they're vanishing you know they're 51 percent
18:43of women graduates in india but by the time they enter entry level they're only 29 percent by the time
18:49to mid to senior management they're only nine percent at that ceo level women are only one percent
18:54so in lacking a lot uh in terms of the global index also offering equal opportunities to
19:00women and men so i think what we need to do is we need to look at women's employment uh you know
19:06with instead of looking at it with restrictions look at it instead with responsibility uh you know
19:11because if we have these labor law reforms uh flip that logic that women should work night shift not
19:18allowed to but should while you were talking about it there is an important data which i've just figured out
19:24india's female female labor force participation rate for ages 15 plus in fact reached 41.7 percent in
19:322022 23 24 and nearly doubling from 20 from 23 percent which was in 2017 2018 and that is this is largely
19:44driven by rural women so there is an aspect we have perhaps not talking enough about so puja as someone
19:53uh who is a lawyer who understands a women uh coming from various walks of life to you perhaps what are
20:00the you know concerns that are there particularly among women um in in rural pockets of india
20:12puja if you heard me
20:13you are not auditors could you please repeat mike my question is what are the concerns of women
20:29particularly coming from rural pockets of india
20:31okay so i have another interesting data here tara you come in on this uh rural women in fact led this
20:44surge uh at 47.6 percent and 76.9 percent in agriculture in 23 24 an urban women labor force participation
20:54ratio is lower at 28 with higher unemployment at 7.1 that's the truth
21:04that's very interesting i mean we know that the rural uh workforce almost 70 of the work in fields
21:11for instance is done by women then they go back home and they also look after their homes um depending on
21:17which state you're in there are benefits if couples work together they make more money working together
21:23but this has you know i'm sure you heard about that case recently about sugarcane plantations
21:27in maharashtra women women will be forced into having hysterectomies uh so that they could work
21:32longer hours and not have to worry about uh getting pregnant or having uh menstrual cycles which made
21:38them miss days at work um so i'm sure that's a big concern for uh all women's empowerment groups
21:46in cities i think women have a little less support sometimes especially if they're not from a
21:51particular place and they've moved there uh if they're working night shifts they are very concerned
21:56about who's going to look after their children uh this is a concern even if you're working in the in
22:00the rural force but if you have a larger family or a joint family living in a rural india you tend to
22:07have more support when it comes to looking after your children or making sure there's a meal available
22:12for the elderly at home when you're busy in the fields um so i think that there's less support for
22:18women in urban areas than there is in rural areas because the structure of the nuclear family versus
22:23the joint family has broken down largely in urban areas there's a lot more recent migration of women
22:30from uh one city moving to another where again they don't have that kind of support so working night
22:36shifts is difficult because women have to play dual roles yes and we don't have now for instance you
22:41know do you know we have such a lack of crushes in this country when women come to work whether they
22:49are working as domestic workers whether they're working uh lower level jobs in a in a corporation
22:55they don't know who's going to look after their children that is the most important worry that a woman
23:00has we have only 10 percent of the creches that we actually need in this country so if you want women
23:07to work more night shifts you have to figure out that poor woman has to figure out who's going to feed
23:13the elderly in the house who's going to look after the kids where are the kids going to be
23:17i agree with you i'm an optimist and you know that so are all of you on this panel because we are
23:24looking at a bright 2026 and that's why we are saying that you know well begun is perhaps half done
23:31so let there be a conversation of this nature i have just enough time for 30 seconds for somya and
23:37then the final comments to magna please go ahead somya 30 seconds yeah i think uh you know good good
23:45start and uh good to see that uh at least you know contrary to what we would have imagined the rural
23:51labor participation is increasing all fair points tara i think who's going to look after children is the
23:56biggest uh is the biggest challenge that women face uh uh hopefully that changes that is changing
24:03with with zoom calls work from home gig economy you know freelancer dot coms of the world i think at
24:10least women have a lot of options to be financially independent and initiatives like this only you know
24:17widens the uh the funnel even more and so and we speak about adi abadi pura hak you know 50
24:24that's the population women have been at the driving force behind multiple uh states chief
24:32and governments returning to power it has happened only last year in bihar uh you know women shaping
24:39politics so they have to be seen in important places and should be about their you know contribution
24:47in the organization rather than they becoming headaches if they are not able to do certain shifts magna
24:53true true i think uh you know this is not about forcing women to work at night this is about
24:59giving women real choice opportunity that is backed by infrastructure choice that backed by enforcement
25:05and choice it's backed by respect so i think in atma nirbhar bharat cannot be built on unpaid female
25:11labor and restricted female mobility and atma nirbhar aurat is not a slogan she's an economic necessity and i
25:17think that's what we should lead with as we enter this new year absolutely women are an economic
25:22necessity they are an important participant you have a woman a finance minister who has broken many
25:30a glass ceilings already in the number of budgets that she has presented and she'll be presenting
25:35out of the budget on the first of february thank you so much and wishing all of you a very happy new
25:40year tara somya magna and thank you thank you thank you thank you all of you that's all from me on this
25:48edition of the news track to all the viewers wishing you a very healthy prosperous and successful 2026
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