Biman Mukherji

My Take | Death of two Indian women workers underscores need to revamp workplace culture

The deaths highlight a lack of worker safety, fuelling calls for inclusive workplace reforms in India, and addressing low female workforce participation

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India has a low participation of female workers, with only 37 per cent of women in the workforce according to government data. Photo: Shutterstock

Biman Mukherji

Published: 10:30am, 4 Oct 2024

The recent tragic deaths of two young and highly educated women – a medical college intern and an executive with a consulting firm – have sparked outrage across India.

In the first instance, the trainee doctor was raped and murdered while trying to catch up on sleep in a makeshift place in a government college in West Bengal’s state capital, Kolkata. In the second case, the executive collapsed, allegedly due to sheer exhaustion after being pushed to overwork.

On the surface, the two cases may seem unrelated, but they both show a lack of concern for workers’ safety and well-being. This has contributed to the low participation of women workers, with only 37 per cent of women in the workforce as of the financial year ending March 2023, according to India’s annual economic survey published in July.

India’s economic growth has been celebrated globally, but adopting a more inclusive attitude towards gender diversity can further enhance its reputation by fully harnessing the potential of its large population of young workers. Learning from these incidents could also benefit many parts of South Asia, where female participation in the workforce remains abysmally low.

People chant during a demonstration to condemn the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, India on September 4. Photo: AFP

In response to widespread protests, West Bengal State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee proposed a new law which seeks to impose a death penalty on all incidents of rape. However, this quick-fix solution may provide little relief, as conviction rates are low, and gender sensitivity remains poor.

“If the investigation and prosecution is not going to do a credible good job, we will continue to see lower conviction rates,” says Aparna Mittal, a corporate lawyer and founder of anti-discriminatory consultancy Samana Centre.