43% MSMEs and startups plan to hire women in the next 6 months

Community social media platform, LocalCircles shows in a survey that due to the COVID-19 crisis many Indian startups and MSMEs forces to cost cutting or shut down their business temporarily or permanently and female employees were impacted the most with either no employment or single-stream revenue which has made their life very hard.

The survey, which received over 7,000 responses from startups, MSME, and entrepreneurs spread across 104 top business districts of the country, found that 43% of them plan to hire women in the next six months.

As per survey report, it found that

31% Startups and MSMEs in India have reduced their workforce, mostly women, in the last 8 months

78% Startups and MSMEs in India have reduced workforce in the last 8 months

• 25 % shut down their business and all workforces has been let go
• 15% said their workforce has reduced by 50 per cent or more
• 19% said their workforce has reduced by 25-50 per cent, and another
• 19% said their workforce has reduced by up to 25 per cent
• Only 6% said their workforce has increased and
• 16% said they have same workforce as pre COVID-19 time

According to the survey the question asked to Startups & MSMEs, about how employment of women has been in their business 8 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. In response,

• 7% said women in their workforce have been reduced by 50-100%
• 12% said women in their workforce have reduced by 25-50%, and
• 12% said women in our workforce have been reduced by up to 25%
• 46% said they still have same number of women in the workforce as pre COVID-19

Not a single business reported increase in the number of female employees during the course of the 8 months of COVID-19 pandemic. The survey clearly indicates that workforce adjustments made due to the pandemic hit female workers the most.

Maternity leave benefits leading to reduced hiring of women

In 2017, the Indian Government passed the Maternity (Amendment) Bill that increased the right to paid maternity leave for working women from 3 months to 6 months – the third highest in the world. Although this was great news for nursing mothers, a ripple effect of this decision was noticed in many small businesses that reduced hiring of women in their organizations, purely due to financial reasons and the cost of funding maternity leave benefits.

Though the Government came back and moved a proposal allowing companies to file reimbursement of 7 of the 26 weeks of maternity pay, there were few takers amongst small businesses. With COVID-19, women’s employment situation has changed a bit.

Work from home: another challenge in women hiring

The survey also report that as many children now doing online classes from home, working women have been juggling between running the household to attending to children and delivering on their work commitments.

However, a bunch of startups and MSMEs said that over the next six months they will start hiring women.

According to the survey the question asked how startups & MSMEs expect to hire employment of women in their business at the next 6 months,

• 50 percent said they don’t plan to hire any women employees.
• 30% said they plan to hire 1-5 women employees.
• 13% said they plan to hire 6-10 women employees and
• 7% were unsure about it.

With growth coming back in many sectors, and given that Work from Home has become a new normal for many of the technology driven businesses and for and for white collar jobs, even in traditional businesses, it is likely to help more women find job opportunities in the coming months.