Abstract
Evidence from the literature on the female workforce in India shows that real agricultural wages, expenditure per capita and gross domestic product are trending downwards. Although a number of studies suggest a U-link between women's progress and participation in the labour market. Studies also confirm the relationship between the structure of the economy and women’s economic activity. Experiences in India indicate that women's participation in the labour market has been trending downward from 1993–94 to 2011–12. It is expected that such a high annual growth rate over an extended period of time will generate sufficient employment and reduce unemployment and the incidence of poverty. This paper acknowledged that the participation rate of women at both an aggregate level and in all demographic, cultural and economic variables was declining significantly. This pattern is more marked for the less educated, married women and youth. This paper has attempted to unfold the actuality behind the recent sharp decline in female labour force participation in India, in a period of rapid economic growth, and to identify factors underpinning the long-term drifts in female participation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Afridi, F., Dinkelman, T., & Mahajan, K. (2016). Why are fewer married women joining the work force in india? A decomposition analysis over two decades. IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor) Discussion Paper No. 9722.
Andres, L. A., Dasgupta, B., Joseph, G., Abraham, V., & Correia, M. (2017). Precarious drop: Reassessing patterns of female labor force participation in India. The World Bank.
Antonopoulos, R. (2008). The unpaid care work-paid work connection. The Levy Economics Institute, Working Paper No. 541.
Banu, A. (2016). Human development, disparity and vulnerability: Women in South Asia. Background paper for Human Development Report.
Bhalla, S., & Kaur, R. (2011). Labour force participation of women in India: Some facts. some queries, LSE Asia Research Center Working Paper, (40).
Basak, U., & Bhattacharyya, S. (2003). Rural employment, market reforms and gender inequality in West Bengal. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 48(3), 553–561.
Bhalla, S. (1993). The dynamics of wage determination and employment generation in Indian agriculture. Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 48(3).
Bhalla, S. (2007). The inclusive growth? Focus on employment. Social Scientist, 35(7–8), 24–43.
Bhattacharya, B. B., & Sakthivel, S. (2003). Economic reforms and jobless growth in India in the 1990s. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 46(4), 845–865.
Boserup, E. (1970). Woman’s role in economic development. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Chadha, G. K. & Sahu, P. P. (2002). Post-reform setbacks in rural employment: issues that need further scrutiny, Economic and Political Weekly, 37(21), 1998–2026.
Chandrasekhar, C. P. and Ghosh, J. (2002). The market that failed: A decade of neoliberal economic reforms in India. LeftWord.
Chandrasekhar, C. P., & Ghosh, J. (2006). Employment growth: The latest trends. www.macroscan.org. 23 Nov. 2006.
Chandrasekhar, C. P., & Ghosh, J. (2007). Self-employment as opportunity or challenge. www.macroscan.org. Accessed 30 Mar. 2007.
Chapman, T., & Mishra, V. (2019). Rewriting the rules: Women and work in India. ORF Special Report No. 80, Observer Research Foundation.
Chatterjee, U., Murgai, R., & Rama, M. (2015). Job opportunities along the rural–urban gradation and female labor force participation in India. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7412.
Chatterjee, E., Desai, S., & Vanneman, R. (2018). Indian paradox: Rising education, declining women’s employment. Demographic Research, 38, 855–878.
Chowdhury, S. (2011). Employment in India: What does the latest data show? Economic and Political Weekly, 46(32), 23–26.
Das, M., & Desai, S. (2003). Why are educated women less likely to be employed in India? Testing competing hypotheses. Social Protection, World Bank.
Dasgupta, S., & Verick, S. S. (Eds.). (2016). Transformation of women at work in Asia: An unfinished development agenda. SAGE Publications India.
Desai, S. B., Dubey, A., Joshi, B. L., Sen, M., Shariff, A., & Vanneman, R. (2010). Human development in India. Oxford University.
Ghai, S. (2018). The anomaly of women’s work and education in India. Working Paper 368, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICSIER).
Goldin, C. (1994). The U-shaped female labor force function in economic development and economic history (No. w4707). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Gutierrez, C., Orecchia, C., Paci, P., & Serneels, P. (2007). Does employment generation really matter for poverty reduction?. The World Bank.
International Labour Organization. (2018). India wage report, wage policies for decent work and inclusive growth. ILO.
Islam, R. (2004). The nexus of economic growth, employment and poverty reduction: An empirical analysis. ILO, Issues in Employment and Poverty Discussion Paper.
Kapsos, S., Bourmpoula, E., & Silberman, A. (2014). Why is female labour force participation declining so sharply in India? (No. 994949190702676). International Labour Organization.
Klasen, S., & Pieters, J. (2012). Push or pull? Drivers of female labor force participation during India's economic boom. IZA Discussion Paper No. 6395.
Klasen, S., & Pieters, J. (2015). What explains the stagnation of female labor force participation in urban India?. The World Bank.
Klasen, S., Pieters, J., Santos Silva, M., & Ngoc Tu, L. T. (2019). What drives female labor force participation? Comparable micro-level evidence from eight developing and emerging economies (No. 12067). Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Labour Bureau. (2015). Report on 4th annual employment-unemployment survey (2014–15). Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
Labour Bureau. (2016). Report on 5th annual employment-unemployment survey (2015–16) (Vol. I, II). Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
Mammen, K., & Paxson, C. (2000). Women’s work and economic development. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 141–164.
Mehrotra, S., Saha, P., Gandhi, A., Devi, K., & Sinha, S. (2013). Low female employment in a period of high growth: Insights from primary survey in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. IAMR Report, (9).
Mehrotra, S., & Sinha, S. (2017). Explaining falling female employment during a high growth period. Economic and Political Weekly L, 11, 54–62.
Neff, D. F., Sen, K., & Kling, V. (2012). The puzzling decline in rural women's labor force participation in India: A reexamination. GIGA research unit: Institute of Asian Studies, Working paper no: 196.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hazra, A. (2022). Women’s Labour Force Participation in India and Continuing Gender Inequality: A Reflection of 15 Major States in India in the Reform Era. In: Dasgupta, B., Sarkhel, P., Ghosh, A., Ghosh, B. (eds) In Quest of Humane Development. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9579-7_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9579-7_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-9578-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-9579-7
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)