International Women's Day Reports on South Asian women

Only 15.5 percent South Asian Women are wage earners or salaried against 24.4 percent of men in South Asia, shows a latest report by a United Nations agency.

"Those women who enter the labour market face greater risk of unemployment than men," the report made public on Friday March 08, 2008 by International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Howerver, the 'Global Employent Trends for Women March 2008' has painted an optimistic picture stating that women's move into more productive sectors and increasing productivity can push earnings to above the proverty threshold.

South Asia has untapped femel potential and sizeable decent work deficit. Of  511 million working age women and 540 million men,only 174 million women have a job compared to 422 million men.

It also says the number of employed women grew by almost 200 million over the last decade to reach 1.2 billion in 2007 compared to 1.8 billion men across the world.

"However, the number of unemployed women also grew from 70.2 to 81.6 million  over the same period," it said. Findings of the report show that  female unemploymetn rate stood at 6.4 per cent compared to the male rate of 5.7 percent.

Women are more likely to get low productivity, low paid and vulnerable jobs with no social protection and basic rights.

"The burden of vulnerability is still greater for women than men, especially in the world's poorest regions," the report states. It shows that improvements in the status of the women in labour markets throughout the worlld have not substantially narrowed down gender gaps in the workplace.

Access to labour markets and to decent and productive employment is crucial in the process of creating greater equity between men and women, suggested the report.