Tirupati: Women workers bring change in households

Tirupati: Significant transformation of women can be seen from the days of working as farmhands to taking up some odd jobs. A large number of women from Chittoor, Nellore and other districts of the state are finding ample job opportunities which significantly increased their financial stability in the integrated business city 'Sri City' located in the backward zones of Satyavedu Assembly constituency.

While the number of women employees in industries across the world is less than 30 per cent, it is over 50 per cent in Sri City and became a 'care of address' to female workforce. Rural women have changed their lifestyle with the job opportunities in the industries. Even those who have studied up to tenth standard are now getting jobs in the industries in Sri City while educated women find manager level opportunities depending on their qualifications.

The shop floors of some of the manufacturing units were dominated by women from diverse backgrounds as they get wide range of opportunities to choose from. Women workforce participation can be seen at various stages from security guards to assembling mobile phones and making export-quality dolls, dresses and shoes among holding many other responsibilities.

For instance, in Rising Star (a unit of Foxconn) itself, as high as 15,000 women are employed. This stands as a fitting testimony to the success of the women operators' concept. The percentage of women-workforce ranges from 20 to 95 in different companies.

The manufacturing industries in the sectors of electronics, textile, food processing, toy making, etc., were giving increasing preference to women in recruitment because of various advantages.

Bharath Mohindra, chairman of Zen Linen, said that they deploy 99 per cent of the female workforce in the manufacturing process. Pals Plush, which makes toys sold by Universal Studios, WalMart and Pottery Barn Kids has around 80 per cent of rural women staff.

After the state government issued a circular in 2015 that allows women to work in night shifts across all factories at Kellogg's plant, the number of women technicians increased by six times. Some of the companies, such as Mondelez, adopted a unique strategy to build a factory floor which generally tends to be a male bastion that was equally represented by women. Some of the companies have bagged 'Best Companies for Women' award from the Chennai-based AVTAR Group.

Various institutes like Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad, SV University, Tirupati, etc., conducted studies on the economic progress of women in the vicinity of Sri City. They observed that the income of the people has increased by more than double and the employment opportunities have given women a voice and ability to take their own stands.

Stating that Sri City had organised free vocational training for rural women even before its inception, its MD Ravindra Sannareddy observed, "Women make ideal workers because they are disciplined, loyal to the company and less likely to cause trouble or unionise".