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Labour Force Participation Rate of Women in Urban India: An Age-Cohort-Wise Analysis

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Abstract

The persistent problem of low and stagnant labour force participation rate of women in urban India over the past two and a half decades has been well recognised by scholars. The rates stagnated within the low range of 22–23%, during the period extending between 1999–2000 and 2011–2012. The paper attempts to contribute to the current understanding of this puzzling phenomenon through a sequential analysis of long-term trends in female labour force participation rate by disaggregating urban women in terms of their age, marital status, and education levels. The cross-sectional analysis is supplemented by the nonparametric technique of classification and regression tree (CART). Focussing on the sample of non-student urban women, the paper finds that the problem relates primarily to the relatively better educated married women in the age-cohorts of 30–59 years. Moreover, 2011–2012 was marked by a further weakening in the labour market outcomes of these women, both with respect to the lesser educated married women and married men in general.

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Fig. 1

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data for various rounds

Fig. 2

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

Fig. 3

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data for various rounds

Fig. 4

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data for various rounds

Fig. 5

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

Fig. 6

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

Fig. 7

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

Fig. 8

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

Fig. 9

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

Fig. 10

Source: Calculated from unit-level NSSO data

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Notes

  1. Labour force participation rate is defined as the percentage of the persons employed (working) or unemployed (seeking or available for work) to the total persons in the working age group. In the adjusted labour force participation rate, the numerator of the ratio remains unchanged. It is from the denominator or the total sample of working age women (15–59 years); the section of women currently attending educational institutions (usual activity status 91) is removed.

  2. 0 year equals illiterate to below primary education; 5 years equals primary level; 8 years equal middle level; 10 years equal secondary level; 12 years equal higher secondary; and 15 years equal graduate and above (Ghose, 2004).

  3. Reservation wage is the lowest wage at which an individual is willing to work and it plays an important role in the labour force participation decision of women (Brown et al., 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Deeksha Tayal & Sourabh Paul

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  1. Deeksha Tayal
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Appendices

Appendix A

See Tables

Table 14 Trends in education-wise percentage of married women (30–59 years) engaged in domestic duties
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14 and

Table 15 Significance testing for education-wise trends in the percentage of 30–59 years old married women engaged in domestic duties (%)
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15.

Appendix B

See Figs. 

Fig. 11
figure 11

Source: Generated using NSSO unit-level data

Decision Tree for Female Labour Force Participation Rate in 1987–1988.

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11,

Fig. 12
figure 12

Source: Generated using NSSO unit-level data

Decision Tree for Female Labour Force Participation Rate in 1999–2000.

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12,

Fig. 13
figure 13

Source: Generated using NSSO unit-level data

Decision Tree for Female Labour Force Participation Rate in 2011–2012.

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13.

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Tayal, D., Paul, S. Labour Force Participation Rate of Women in Urban India: An Age-Cohort-Wise Analysis. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 64, 565–593 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-021-00336-8

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