Is there a Dark Side to the Night Work Ban? 05/05/2007
The question “ why are you going out at night?” has always had connotations about morality, apart from safety. So when a State bans women’s night work and proclaims to be acting in the interest of women’s safety, it is the accompanying measures which could reveal unarticulated intentions.
The proposed Ban will cover a wide spectrum of women whose working day in “shops and establishments” might end at any time between 8 and 11 pm, as well as those whose working “day” begins after dark. The former would include women in shops, restaurants and super markets that are open after 8 p.m. It will make little sense for the employers to keep women in these jobs if they cannot stay on after 8 pm till closing time. So it seems that women will loose these jobs to men and pave the way for negative discrimination based on gender.
What about those whose work begins at night? For women who may come in before 10 pm and work through the night, safety is NOT the key issue as their time on the road could be late evening and early mornings. Their issues include- fatigue, vulnerability to colo-rectal and breast cancers and hormonal disruptions caused by long exposure to light. For women, sleep in the daytime is not always possible as household chores remain inescapable, leading to higher sleep debt than men. Other studies have documented the social disruptions in marriage, family and child care caused by night working parents. As the main decision makers at work are almost always on the day shift, night workers are also isolated from power centres at work.
Yet the relentlessly expanding global market 24/7economy demands night workers. In such a scenario, the rotation of shifts ( which already exists), is the only solution to the problems listed above that bridges peoples need for livelihood and health with the market’s demand for night workers. The impact of a total ban on women working night shifts in certain establishments, is that men will have to do all the night shifts. Women will be restricted to operations that do not require night work. While this could be a source of relief for those who find the compulsory night shift a terrible burden, in organisations where shift work is an integral part of the work flow, women will surely be either sidelined or asked to quit.
The Karnataka Ban exempts essential services like hospitals, transport, police, utilities like water and electricity etc. While the State is quick to invoke ESMA during strikes, how much priority has been given to ensure that women workers are adequately paid and safely dropped to their doorsteps after they have taken care of society’s needs- be it delivering babies or managing an airline check in counter?
To these “essential” service providers , the Karnataka State has added a another category -of those in IT and IT- es (essential to the state image and exchequer!). It is ironic that it is in the call centres that women have been able work very odd hours as transport is available from home to work place under 2002 agreement (not Legislation ) between the Labour Department and the IT industry. Further, the Pratibha murder investigations are revealing that though her death occurred on the road, its origins lie in a conflict with her colleague. This only underlines that safety is more to do with men’s attitudes to women in the workplace, rather than to working hours or transportation.
In 2005 the Factories Act 1948 was amended to allow women to work in night shifts "provided adequate safeguards are made towards… health, dignity and safety. While the total lack of safety and deplorable condition of women working in the iron ore mines in Sandur- Bellary, has not attracted any state attention, the proposed ban seems to be a case of crocodile tears, as the large majority of women are in the unorganised sector.
For those working in “shops and establishments” several exemptions have been allowed regarding work timings. In the proposed Ban, the emphasis on hotels, spas and recreation, also suggests that the state has usurped a moral guardian role.. Suddenly a concern about women’s safety mutates into a concern about safety of society from “immoral ” women. And the state, appears like a prison guard who restricts women’s work options as the only way to ensure their safety.
For all the hype about transforming Bangalore into a modern megapolis with skyscrapers and metro rail, it seems the state has forgotten that in a truly modern city, women will feel safe to move around in the urban nightscapes - going to work, study, shop or just meet with friends. Today there are very few women on the streets after 9 pm, and after the Ban comes into effect that number will only come down. What a shame!
Should Women Be Allowed to Work at Night
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