Fewer than one in five Indian women are in the labour force. Four out of five are neither working nor looking for work.

Why in news?

• India has one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates (LFPR).
• This means the productive potential of half of the population goes unutilized.

Why women’s LFPR is so low in India?

• There are many reasons:

1. A lack of demand for women workers;
2. Poor working conditions including low wages,
3. Safety concerns and exploitation;
4. Girls studying longer; migration;
5. Nuclearization of families where there are fewer women to share domestic responsibilities; and
6. Middle-income effect is where women stop working because the household has enough income.

• The root of much of this is deep-set patriarchy and neglect for women’s claim to their equal place in a man’s world.

Why enhancing women’s LFPR is critical?

• Research and experience highlight that when women have money, they spend it on the well-being of their families.
• From Brazil’s Bolsa Familia to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package for women with Jan Dhan accounts, policymakers have tried to reap the benefits of putting money in women’s hands.
• One way to do this is to ensure that more women have jobs, higher wages, and equal pay.

What is needed to improve women’s employment?

• Persistent effort must be directed toward community sensitization to root out patriarchal social norms.
• In addition to enforcing existing regulations like minimum wages, there must be supportive ancillary policies including childcare; secure transport; lighting; safety at work; and quotas in hiring, corporate boards, and politics  to  foster  more  women  in  leadership.

What obstacles do we confront?

• Correcting asymmetries of power is hard, especially when it entails changing convention.
• Men who are blind to their privilege, or will be forced to share their privileges, will resist change.
• Engendered discrimination results in a lack of labour market demand for women workers.
• This is visible in policies such as honorariums instead of wages for Anganwadi and Asha workers.
• It is also evident from over-reliance on home-based work for women, on and offline, instead of doing the hard work to ensure equal opportunity, outcomes, and real choice.

What happens if we don’t act?

• A concerted effort to advance gender equity must be a central priority over the next 25 years.
• Evidence shows that economic disempowerment of women can result in losses of 10% of GDP in industrialized economies and over 30% in South Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa.
• India’s GDP could grow by nearly ₹3 trillion if women were brought into the labour market and given access to formal, ‘decent’ work opportunities.

Way forward

• If we improve women’s labour force participation, not only do we harness the massive productive potential of half of the population, but their earnings will yield enormous dividends for the future of the country and economy.

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