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The hidden burden of prolonged work hours

It is important to acknowledge the role of caregivers. Nation-building has to be viewed in a holistic rather than a narrow manner.
There is little regulation on working hours in the informal sector. File photo
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The concept of a prolonged working week has been at the heart of a debate that has erupted recently. It began with comments made last year over the need to work 70 hours weekly in the interest of nation-building by Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy. The discussion became even more fierce after the chairman of engineering giant, Larsen and Toubro, SN Subrahmanyan, pronounced that he was in favour of a 90-hour working week. On a jocular note, he even advised employees to come in on Sundays rather than simply staring at their wives. An off-the-cuff remark, it has gone viral with a million memes being released on the internet.

It would be unfair to judge committed corporate achievers like Narayana Murthy or Subrahmanyan on the basis of casual comments. Yet, they were clearly dead serious in proposing long working hours.

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Given their eminence in the business arena, it is incumbent on us to examine their views with due gravity. The former is among the founders of an information technology concern that has emerged as a world leader in this sector. The latter heads a company that is valued at $56.9 billion in the Forbes list. Their perspectives are, therefore, significant and need to be studied in the context of existing working conditions with a special focus on the role of women in the workforce.

One issue that seems to be in the backdrop of these statements is the fact that both corporate leaders evidently had spouses without time-consuming careers like their own. The result is a failure to consider the pivotal role of caregivers in the developmental matrix even while advocating longer work timings in the interest of promoting higher economic growth.

With the elongated timings being proposed, women, who mainly play the role of primary caregivers in this country, would be unable to participate in the workforce.

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The country does not yet have a system of childcare that would enable domestic caregivers to work in a sustained manner for long hours outside their homes. In other words, the idea of a 70- or 90-hour work week pre-supposes that one spouse would have to be a non-working individual. In the Indian context, where patriarchal mindsets are rigid, to say the least, it is clear that that would be the female partner.

The reference to the wife's presence in these discussions is also based on an assumption that both spouses are at leisure in the household. In other words, domestic work, including cleaning and cooking as well as caregiving for children and elderly family members, is being taken care of by hired help.

The reality is that since domestic workers are not always affordable or available, those in the workplace have to undertake these tasks themselves.

It is on this count, unfortunately, that these eminent persons have shown considerable insensitivity by presuming that "work" only refers to activities outside the household. As is well known, domestic work is both arduous and time-consuming. It is also considered to be the domain of the female gender globally, but more so in this country. An excellent insight into the back-breaking household work done by women is given in the award-winning Malayalam film, 'The Great Indian Kitchen', which is horrifyingly accurate in its depiction of domestic burdens.

This brings us to the question of inadequate female labour force participation (FLFP) in India, which has been an area of study for many years. Described as the mystery of the missing women in the workforce, there have been efforts to determine the reasons for the relatively low level of female participation in the workforce in India compared to the global average of 51 per cent.

The good news is that the numbers of women in the workforce have risen significantly in recent years. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey, the FLFP has increased to 41.7 per cent in 2023-24 from 23.3 per cent recorded in 2017-18. In sharp contrast, the male labour force participation is as high as 78.8 per cent.

A study carried out by economists Shamika Ravi and Mudit Kapoor has concluded that married men have a significantly higher labour force participation rate (LFPR) across all ages, while married women have an equally lower one across all ages. As for the impact of children on the household, it has no effect on the LFPR for married men.

In contrast, for women, it shows a sharp decrease in the participation rate in states like Kerala. Another interesting finding is that Bihar, Punjab and Haryana have consistently reported low rates of female LFPR.

The controversy over enhancing working hours also needs to be viewed in the context of the informal sector where there is little regulation on this score. Small and tiny businesses, for instance, may exploit workers by extending work timings inordinately. In urban areas, the gig economy employs large numbers of delivery workers who may conform to fixed hours or may, instead, be constrained by meeting targets.

Domestic household services is another area where timings and wages remain unregulated and are subject to arbitrary decisions of employers.

Perhaps, this debate may have the unexpected positive impact of waking up policymakers to identify sectors where such regulatory systems need to be set up. For the time being, workers in the unorganised sector do not have the luxury of fixed timings.

The debate on long working hours has ultimately served a useful purpose. It has prompted considerable soul-searching over the question of whether quantity in terms of long hours is preferable to quality in terms of productive output.

Most corporate doyens have spoken out in favour of quality rather than quantity. To be fair, it must be conceded that first-generation founder-entrepreneurs like Narayana Murthy were pioneers in the tech sector only due to the single-minded focus on their ventures. Similarly, Subrahmanyan's rise to the top must have been fuelled by the same tunnel vision. Yet, there are many routes to success. Other corporate leaders have had a variety of interests while creating industrial empires, such as the late Ratan Tata.

It is also important to acknowledge the irreplaceable role of caregivers in the developmental process. Nation-building for an emerging economy, thus, has to be viewed in a holistic rather than a narrow manner.

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