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Discouraged Worker Effect among Indian Women: Evidence from FLFP Survey

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Abstract

Based on a household survey of 4713 females in the states of Delhi, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh during the period of November 2021-January 2022, conducted by IWWAGE, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of ‘discouraged worker effect’ particularly for females and defining it in a more inclusive and comprehensive way. The study proposes to broaden the conventional definition where discouragement is related only to prevailing labour market conditions. In addition to the labour market conditions, the proposed definition considers the relevant individual-specific, household-specific factors and their interaction effects. The findings confirm a significant presence of ‘marriage effect’ as a discouragement factor for females. Also, it is observed that the ‘marriage effect’ is higher among the younger age-cohort of 18–24 years, the crucial period in determining one’s carrier path. A divergence from the U-shaped relation between education and female labour force participation is found in the study. According to the U-shaped relationship, women with tertiary level of education are more likely to join the labour force, as compared to those with secondary level of education. However, it is observed in this study that women with education level of post-graduation and above are found to be discouraged to join the labour force, which might arise due to the lack of availability of high-skill job opportunities. The study confirms the presence of ‘the income effect’ as among households with higher asset index and when the education level of the principal income earner and thus the earning capacity is higher, the discouragement to women members to join the labour force, is higher. But as the number of employed members increase, women in that household are found to be more likely to join the labour force. This might be because of the households being less restrictive due to their exposure to the outer world. Also, the discouragement effect is observed to be less in nuclear families as compared to joint families and also when the women receive skill training.

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Fig. 1

Source: Female Labourforce Participation Survey conducted by IWWAGE

Fig. 2

Source: Female Labourforce Participation Survey conducted by IWWAGE

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Notes

  1. In case of Rajasthan, the data collected from the rural district of Barmer has been dropped due to data quality concerns.

  2. The inclusion of district-wise descriptive statistics is not done in this study for two reasons. The sample includes only rural or urban parts of a certain district. For example, Gharwa includes the rural part of the district while Jaipur includes only the urban part of the district. Secondly, the sample across each category of a certain variable has less number of observations. For example, the sample does not include a representative sample of unmarried or separated women in Mandya, and primarily includes married women.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would gratefully acknowledge Dr. Sona Mitra, Director-Policy and Research, IWWAGE, for her thorough guidance and insightful suggestions to improve the analysis of the study.

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The authors would like to acknowledge that this paper is a part of the study funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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  1. IWWAGE, Delhi, India

    Bidisha Mondal, Aparna Govindarajan & Trisha Chandra

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  1. Bidisha Mondal
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Correspondence to Bidisha Mondal.

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Mondal, B., Govindarajan, A. & Chandra, T. Discouraged Worker Effect among Indian Women: Evidence from FLFP Survey. Ind. J. Labour Econ. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-024-00470-z

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