Diya Mirza at a women’s day event in Mumbai. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, March 8: It’s not that there’s every reason to cheer.

A survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), presented on International Women’s Day, says that after all these years, women employees constitute only 6 per cent of the total workforce across all organisations and levels in the country.

Thermax chairperson Anu Aga, who headed the CII Women Empowerment Committee that conducted the survey, said the report found that while medium-sized companies employed 18 per cent women, large companies were bigger defaulters, with only 4 per cent of their total strength being women.

Worse, the study found that while 16 per cent women were employed in junior management and 4 per cent each in middle and senior management, the percentage was nil in top positions.

Worldwide, there are several basic problems.

A recent Consumers International report said poor rural women in developing countries may spend eight hours a day collecting water, carrying up to 20 kg water on their heads each journey.

A resident of a slum in Kandivli, a Mumbai suburb, who works as a domestic worker, has to walk about a kilometre to collect water in a 25-litre can carried on her head and walk back, which takes two hours. Or she can buy a 40-litre can from nearby Krantinagar for Rs 2. Her employer gets water for free.

Newspapers were flooded with advertisements that asked if women have discovered the shakti (power) within, and the shakti referred to a diamond.

On the occasion, HDFC Bank launched two products aimed at women consumers: Woman’s Advantage Debit Card and International Women’s Gold Visa Card.

But there was something yet to save Women’s Day.

Perhaps it affected only a minuscule part of the minuscule percentage of women in the workforce, but the jokes that kept women busy through the day were truly funny.

One went: “Happy IVGLDSW Day! Today is International Very Good Looking, Damn Smart Woman’s Day, so please send this message to someone you think fits this description. Please do not send it back to me as I have already received it from a Very Good Looking, Damn Smart Woman!”