Women to play critical role in economy - Rosy

by Rohana Jayalal

Women are the backbone of s most economically important sectors in the social market system and will play a critical role in the economy in the future, State Minister of Child Affairs Rosy Senanayake told Sunday Observer Business.

The economy will see a steep decline of 4% by 2020, unless the participation of women in the labour force increases. With the current demographic trend of an ageing population, the contribution of the female labour force remains of utmost importance for economic growth.

The ageing population is a major challenge for future economic growth as the resulting fall of the labour force will have a negative effect on growth and poverty reduction. Sri Lanka has the lowest female labour force participation compared to other middle income countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.” Economic zones and other development projects to be launched by the future government will generate a large number of jobs for men and women alike. During the past regime the economy was run by family and friends of the past rulers. The country had to suffer due to family rule. We want to change this,” she said.-

Nearly a third of those in employment are females. But, there are indications that this number is changing. From 2010 to 2015 the female labour force grew at almost twice the rate of the male labour force and the female share of the labour force increased.

This is encouraging, given that only about a third of working-age females participate in the labour market compared to more than two thirds of working-age males.

At present 62 percent of the women employed in the private sector and about 10 percent work in the public sector. There are only a few women Ministry Secretaries and top decision makers in the sector, Senanayake said.

The gender gap in labour force participation is the 20th largest in the world. Labour force participation rates for women are lower than for men in all sectors and consistently lowest in the urban sector.

The reason for this disparity stems from the general biased attitude of the local community, where the household roles and responsibilities limit women from engaging in paid work and a lack of availability of skills and also gender discrimination, she said.

According to government statistics Sri Lanka’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is essentially run by women and the economy is driven by them as well.

Every year women bring in Rs. 4 billion revenue from apparel exports, more than Rs. 2 billion from tea and more than Rs. 7 billion from foreign employment. It’s time that more corporate ladies give leadership to social issues in the country, she said.

Most Sri Lankan women are afraid to come out of their shell to be awarded for their contribution to the economy. It is they who will drive the economy in the future.

We must encourage women to become more active in whatever business they are involved in, she said.With vast challenges and difficulties faced by women, there is a segment of the local female population who are more focused on business and determined to be as competitive as men.

The fear of women being second to men is fading with more educated and inspirational women coming forward in business.

“We should give women the freedom to do what they want because that is a basic right. Women going overseas for low-paid labour oriented domestic aide jobs indicates that there’s a huge problem in the country. They go due to poverty and we need to eradicate it.

According to the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey (LFS) in the first quarter of 2015, the estimated economically active population is about 8.9 million, of which 36.7 percent are females. Out of the economically inactive population 74.1 percent are females. In urban areas it is 69.3 percent, rural areas 75.4 percent and estate 71.9 percent.According to the survey, labour force participation rates by age group and by gender depicts high male participation compared to females in all age groups. The highest participation rate for males was reported from age group 35—39 years (96.2%), while that for females was from the age group of 45– 49 years (51.7%).

The total number of employed persons in Sri Lanka is estimated at about 8.5 million, of which, about 44.7 percent are engaged in the services sector, 25.9 percent in the industrial sector and 29.4 percent in agriculture. The number of females employed in the services sector is 41 percent, agriculture 33 percent and industrial 26 percent.

There are more female students in the education system than male students. However, the female participation in the workforce is stagnating, showing an engagement rate of approximately 41% in comparison to the 82% engagement rate shown by males of 15 years and above. But the problem of unemployment is more acute in the case of educated females than educated males.

According to the records overall unemployment rate reported for female is 7.9 percent.

The proportion of females working in the informal sector is 57.1% compared to males - 65.4%. Part of the greater share of females in the formal sector is explained by new employment opportunities opened mainly for young women in the export-oriented labour-intensive light manufacturing sector, and trade and tourism-oriented services sectors since liberalization.

“We need to create a global market, need to be a strong global player and need to move towards the knowledge economy because we are a nation of intelligent and smart people. We haven’t created an opportunity for them during the past 21 years to exploit the capacity they have within them.”

“We haven’t been right by them especially, by the women. because the whole world is working towards a knowledge economy. So we should create a good opportunity for women and men equally,” Senanayake said.