Women can now work at night in Delhi factories; Kejriwal govt changes rules

In a significant development, the Delhi government has done away with the archaic rules under the Factories Act of 1948 that prohibited women from working night shifts in factories, The Times of India reported.

Now women in Delhi can also work the graveyard shifts in factories or offices that generally span from 7 PM to 6 AM.

Section 66(1)(b) of the Factories Act of 1948 states that no woman shall be required or allowed to work in any factory except between the hours of 6 AM and 7 PM.

With an aim to facilitate ease of doing business and reduce the compliance burden on the manufacturing and trade establishments, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal gave the nod to 70 new reforms spanning 16 government departments.

In February, Karnataka allowed women to work in factories on night shifts.

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana governments had previously allowed factories to employ women on night shifts.

According to the latest data on employment and unemployment that is collected through the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the estimated Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) on usual status for women of age 15 years and above in the country was 30.0 per cent, 32.5 per cent and 32.8 per cent during 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively.

The extensive reforms by the Delhi government are aimed at increasing the ease of doing business and include digitisation across several departments, including revenue, labour, information technology, power, drug control, health, food and so on.

Other important reforms include online filing of single-integrated returns under all labour laws, digitising and publishing online land transaction deeds, making searchable meta-data for land deeds, online registration of partnership firms, auto-renewal of factory licences, single form for registration of trade licences and so on.