WOMEN'S RIGHT UNDER MINIMUM WAGES ACT

Women of our country have been discriminated against in various natures. One of the issues
is not being paid with minimum wages for the kind of work they do, there was an emergent
need to provide women with more protection regarding the matters of employment and their
daily wages. India was one of the first developing countries to introduce a law which
governed the minimum wages for all the sectors.
This law of Minimum Wages Act, 1948 has been primarily designed so the women can be
protected so when they work in unorganised sectors, the law makes sure they are given with
appropriate amounts of wages and aren't taken advantage of.
The wages that are paid below the minimum wages is a form of discrimination of gender in
workplace and the employers were not making the payments in definite forms, and these
unfair practices have been pertaining for a long time now. In order to declare a minimum
wage which has to be payable in formal and informal sectors, the government of India
introduced a statute, The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, which was to safeguard the interests
of workers, so they can get a fixed amount of minimum wage. This was mainly focused on
the unorganised sector. This law made sure that payments will be made without any
discrimination of gender.

MINIMUM WAGES ACT 1948 FOR WOMEN:

 Women ought to get her wages because according to the Act, every person who works
must be paid for their works, also they will be given with one paid leave each month;
 The law makes sure that women will be paid the same as the man will be paid in form
of wages, so the discrimination will be curbed;
 Even if women agree to work on less wages than prescribed to them under the law,
the contractor is bound to pay the minimum wages as required.
 Number of hours and overtime: this Act enforces the overtime payment for working
for longer hours or it can be on a holiday, their wages will be increased accordingly,
and an employer is not allowed to cut the wages down if the employer has worked
lesser hours or if the employer failed to assign adequate work.
  In 2011, Oct, the minimum wage nationwide was increased from Rs.125 to
Rs.144/-, some of the states have fixed higher wages than that's fixed by the
government so it can encourage women and men to work harder.

 
REMEDIES FOR WOMEN UNDER THE MINIMUM WAGES ACT 1948:

 If the employer isn't paying the minimum amount of wage, women can complain to
the inspector of labour department in their district;
 The contractor of the labour work cannot make a woman work more than 9 hours in a
day, if they do so, the contractor can be reported.
 And if they are discriminated against in any way, they can approach the nearest labour
department and file a complaint for the same, the officers will take the issue in their
own hands.
 
We can conclude that due to huge illiteracy issues, exploitation of women is higher in the
organised sectors, and they lack the power to bargain, wherein the minimum rate of wage for
the labour they do will not be given. So the government has fixed under the Minimum Wages
Act, where the scheduled employees are under the provision of the law. Indisputable, India is
striving in the act of empowerment for women, but the journey has been long and still going,
the minimum wages act is one of the steps which will decrease the discrimination of women
among the employment and wages.

References
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
329911604_LABOUR_LAWS_AND_PROTECTION_OF_WOMEN/link/
5c2257e8299bf12be399fccf/download
 https://www.lawyered.in/legal-disrupt/articles/employment-and-labour-laws-women/
 https://vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/women-and-child-development/women-development-
1/legal-awareness-for-women/laws-relating-to-working-women
 https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/12832/13/14_chapter%205.pdf
 https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---sro-new_delhi/
documents/publication/wcms_638305.pdf