Dealing with Decline in Female Workforce Participation
iasparliament
March 01, 2019
What is the issue?
The female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) has dropped from around 31% in 2011-12 to around 23% in 2017-18.
It is imperative to understand the varied reasons behind the decline despite the numerous government measures in place.
What is the anomaly?
The decline is explained to be a result of a fall in overall labour force participation rates (LFPR) in India.
This, in turn, is said to be a result of demonetisation when economic activity across the country collapsed.
But markedly, FLFPR fell from nearly 42% in 2004-05 to around 31% in 2011-12, well before demonetisation itself.
India’s FLFPR is notably the lowest among the emerging economies.
Are government measures paying results?
The decline in FLFPR is despite the strong government initiatives for “specifically targeted programmes” for women’s socio-economic empowerment as provided in the “Gender Budgeting” Statements.
These include Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) of 1986 and “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” scheme of 2015.
But the insufficiency of budgetary allocations for such crucial schemes remains a concern and the outcome is less appreciable.
There is a notable deviation between what is budgeted for these programmes and the real spending.
Moreover, India designed a rights-based job guarantee programme for 100 days - the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
But ensuring job cards to women have not effectively translated into rise in employment.
What are the reasons?
Care Economy - The “care economy” burden of women is one of the important determinants of FLFPR.
It refers to women spending time on fetching of clean water, fuel collection, and other domestic chores.
Their “time poverty” affects “income poverty”, as the time burden of women in domestic chores hinder them from entering the workforce.
Due to this, there are specific labour supply constraints in India, over and above the known labour demand constraints (lack of jobs) for women.
Fem-U - From an economic growth perspective, a more logical answer for the falling participation is what is called the “Feminisation U” (Fem-U).
This refers to an ILO (International Labour Organization) study which found evidence of a U-shaped relationship between FLFPR and GDP per capita.
It proposes that growth lowers female participation rates in the early stages of development and increases it at later stages.
This may actually apply in a broad sense to India.
However, Fem-U is an experimental question, which needs further research in India.
What lies ahead for India?
India is likely to benefit from moving up the second phase of the Fem-U, depending on progress in income levels across the country.
According to the ILO, reducing the gender gap in South Asia alone by 2025 can lead to a 7.2% increase in GDP for the region.
So investing in comprehensive “care economy” public infrastructure is crucial for India to increase economic growth by way of increase in FLFPR.
In all, it is high time the macroeconomic policymakers realise the significance of integrating gender perspective in job creation.
