May 10, 2007
The Asia Pacific region, in particular South Asia, has made little substantive progress in addressing discrimination at work, with women still facing major gender gaps in work and pay across the region, according to an International Labour Organization report.
The report, “Equality at work: Tackling the challenges”, also reports newer forms of discrimination emerging across the region, including unfair treatment of both young and older persons, people with disabilities, those living with HIV/AIDS and in the area of sexual orientation.
ILO gender specialist Neilien Haspels said the discrimination was affecting the most vulnerable. “We have the situation of domestic workers, we have the situation of migrant workers and women [who] particularly suffer in situations where families have to deal with HIVAIDS,” Haspels said.
Gek-Boo Ng, ILO regional director for Asia and the Pacific, said the issue of discrimination and dealing with the issue was part of the ILO’s program of promoting better jobs and social justice.
“Discrimination is not just a breach of human rights, it’s a departure from economic common sense. No country which truly wishes to compete regionally or globally can afford to set aside part of the human talent pool because they vary in some way from a perceived norm,” Ng told a media conference.
The report notes that globally female labor participation had risen significantly to 56.6 percent. But in the Asia Pacific the picture was mixed. In South Asia, the female labor force rate was just 43.5 percent, while in East Asia and the Pacific the rate stands at 61.2 percent.
Tim de Meyer, an ILO labor standards specialist, said positive developments are taking place for women in the work force in the region.
“Ever more women in Asia search and find employment. Although thee are big differences between various regions within Asia—South Asia is well below the world average—East Asia and the Pacific is well above,” de Meyer said.
“There is a large and probably persisting gender employment gap in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. It means that many more men than women search and find paid employment,” he said.
In India, only 26 per cent of women are participating in the labor force compared to 84.1 per cent of men. In Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, the differential was over 30 points.
“Women are more likely to remain unemployed and when they do find employment—to enter the informal economy—that part of the economy which is poorly regulated, poorly registered and as a result people do not obtain the protection they are entitled to,” de Meyer said.
“South Asia deserves to be singled out because in many respects it’s one of the most problematic regions when it comes to gender discrimination—lack of equality of opportunity and treatment for women,” he said.
“South Asia has the highest share of unpaid women working despite an important recent drop, and it’s the only region in the world where a higher proportion of women do unpaid work in agriculture than in all other economic sectors together.”
Other “disturbing differentials” in employment include a female unemployment rate in Indonesia of 13.3 per cent compared with 8.6 per cent for men. In Malaysia, the 2004 rate was 3.8 per cent for women and 3.4 per cent for men, and in India 5.3 female unemployment and 4.9 per cent for men.
But the ILO report also highlights other forms of discrimination occurring in the region. The report notes growing discrimination against migrant workers.
“The growing numbers of migrant workers in the region face …racial discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance, …reflected in low wages, long and exhausting working hours and violence,” it says.
These range from Burmese migrant workers fleeing to Thailand to the situation in China, where rural migrants—an estimated 150 million—“are laboring in the coastal cities but are finding it difficult to obtain permits largely due to the constraints of the ‘hukou system’,” the report notes.
“Women in Asia search and find employment more than ever. They get ever better educated yet it doesn’t translate into higher pay—the gender pay gap remains somewhat surprisingly stubborn,” de Meyer said.
But while there are signs of increasing commitment by governments in Asia to deal with gender discrimination through legislation many countries remain reluctant to sign on to ILO conventions.
“You have to make law work, law doesn’t work by itself. There is a growing body of experience how to make law work. [But] the relevant institutions in Asia are fairly weak; not many countries have independent equal opportunity commissions that can advise government,” de Meyer said.
By Ron Corben/Bangkok, Thailand
