INDIA 360
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India 360: Night shifts for women
Published on Sat, May 05, 2007 at 10:11, Updated on Tue, Jun 19, 2007 at 12:00 in India section
Tags: India 360, Karnataka Government
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The Karnataka Assembly has passed a new Bill that seeks to ban night shifts for women in firms that come under the Karnataka Shops and Establishments Act. The IT industry and hospitals, however, will be exempted.
The government says it is the only way to ensure protection for women and will target the hotel industry, shopping malls and recreation centers.
The hotel industry, however, has reacted sharply. Women form more than 50 per cent of the workforce in some trades and hotels will find it difficult to reorganise their functioning.
The big question asked on the show India 360 on CNN-IBN was whether women should be allowed to work in night shifts. Vice President, Stanton Chase Intl, Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, came together with host Smita Nair to discuss the issue.
Is the move gender-discriminative?
With the Karnataka government planning to ban night shifts reasoning that it is unsafe for women, is it trying to lock up women rather than providing them security and safety, which is the responsibility of the state government?
“The government’s intention to see that women are safe today must be appreciated. However, one must have a balanced perspective in this issue. It is a gender-discriminate to have different working hours for men and women,” said Chetty-Rajagopal.
Since the IT sector, hotel industry and hospitals were exempted from the proposal, is it focusing on an age-old bias against women in the hospitality industry?
Chetty-Rajagopal opined that it was really strange that hospitality industry had been exempted from the plan but since it operates for 24 hours it could be the reason that propelled the government’s decision.
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