What makes a person in a leadership
position happy? Having a reliable team, right?
It’s a phase we are slowly reaching — but it hasn’t come without its
challenges.
SAJAG will soon turn nine. In these
years, I have worked with over twenty women (and one man) who have been part of
our team — each bringing their own energy, warmth, and dedication to our work
with children. And I have seen each of them leave.
When I look at the reasons, a
clear pattern emerges. Some stayed for two years or more before moving on — for
marriage, higher-paying jobs, or further studies. Others stepped away, not
because of dissatisfaction with the work, but because life outside the
workplace demanded their full attention — from pregnancy and health needs to
caring for ageing parents or in-laws, fertility treatment, or the sudden loss
of a loved one.
Caregiving responsibilities and higher
salary opportunities together account for a significant share of our attrition.
The rest is spread between life transitions such as marriage or higher studies,
health-related reasons, and work-related challenges like adapting to SAJAG’s
pedagogy or meeting performance expectations.
Why Some Stay
Those who have been able to stay longer
often have one or both of these advantages:
- Reliable care-taking support at
home — for children, elderly parents,
or other dependents.
- A financial context that allows
stability — either because the household
does not rely solely on their salary, or because their income is essential
but well-supported by family arrangements.
Without these, even the most committed
women can find the constant balancing act too difficult to sustain.
The Wider Picture: Why
the Hiring Pool is Already Small
The International Labour Organization
(ILO) reports that globally, 45% of women outside the labour force cite
unpaid caregiving as the main reason. In India, more than half of urban women
who are not working say the same.
In Maharashtra, the picture is even
more telling. Between 1993 and 2017, women’s labour force participation in the
state fell sharply from 55.6% to 32.7%, with the steepest drop among
educated urban women. This means that even as more women gained education, many
still did not — or could not — enter paid work, often due to the same
caregiving and household responsibilities that the ILO highlights.
And while urban environments might seem
freeing compared to rural settings, they can actually be more constraining.
Prices for support systems are high, and care is expensive unless a household
member does it for free. Broader family networks that once shared
responsibilities are often absent, and safe neighbourhood environments — where
certain caregiving needs wouldn’t have existed — are harder to find. Add to
this the higher cost of living and steep rents, and wage expectations
inevitably rise. For small or new organisations like ours, meeting these higher
salary expectations while sustaining programmes is a challenge. It’s
constraining for potential employees as well as for us as employers.
Not Just a SAJAG Story
Conversations with peers confirm this
is not unique to us. Women’s lives remain deeply tied to caregiving roles, and
when that support is disrupted, paid work is often the first thing to go.
Urban settings may appear to offer more
freedom, but practical and cultural barriers remain: affordable childcare is
rare, social expectations are strong, and women juggle multiple
responsibilities in ways that most workplaces don’t fully account for.
Balancing Structure
and Flexibility
At SAJAG, flexibility isn’t limitless —
our work is tied to the school calendar and the rhythms of children’s learning.
But we adapt where we can:
- Planning schedules around personal
needs.
- Re-engaging past team members on project
basis.
Even small adjustments help women stay
connected to work they care about.
Nine Years, and Still
Learning
Nine years in, I no longer see this as
a story of “staff turnover.” It’s a story of resilience — of women who step
into classrooms and communities, determined to do meaningful educational work
even when their lives are full of competing demands.
Many have left SAJAG, but they’ve taken
with them skills, confidence, and the belief that their voice matters. For
those with us now — and those yet to join — our work continues, rooted in the
belief that creating space for women in education is not only about filling
posts. It’s about holding space for the lives they lead beyond it.
#womenworkforce #teaching #skillbasedjob #ILO #urbanwomen #sajagtrust
