- 7 months ago
On this Special Report, the focus is on the new labor codes allowing women to work night shifts in India. The discussion explores whether this policy ensures empowerment or increases safety risks. A key point raised is that while the laws mandate employer-led safety measures like transport and security, the implementation remains a challenge. The panel debates the gap between written codes and the reality of street safety, emphasizing that economic participation requires structural protection. The programme also highlights the surge in rural female labor force participation and the need for functional safety nets beyond corporate campuses.
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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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