The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) recently released the Time Use Survey (TUS) 2024, highlighting significant trends in how Indians allocate their time to various activities, including employment, caregiving, and leisure. Here, we have given a detailed overview of Female Labour Force Participation in India.
A key takeaway from the report is the increase in women’s participation in employment-related activities, signalling a gradual shift from unpaid domestic work to paid jobs.
Key Findings of Time Use Survey 2024
Rise in Workforce Participation:
- The participation of women in employment-related activities has increased from 21.8% in 2019 to 25% in 2024.
- For men, the figure has risen from 70.9% to 75%.
Decline in Time Spent on Unpaid Domestic Work:
- Women spent 305 minutes per day on unpaid domestic services in 2024, compared to 315 minutes in 2019, indicating a transition toward paid work.
- Male members spent significantly less time on such tasks, averaging 88 minutes per day.
Women’s Role in Caregiving:
- 41% of women aged 15-59 participated in caregiving activities, compared to only 21.4% of men in the same age group.
Even after such progressive numbers, one can see that the glaring gap between the male and female data is concerning. Though female participation has increased, it is still far behind male participation. The same is the case with unpaid work and roles in caregiving. Why is it so? Let us discuss this in detail.
FLFPR(Female Labour Force Participation Rate) Trend in India
- The Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) is consistently increasing in India. However, it is still very low compared to the developed nations.
- The simple average of the FLFPR of the five southern Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala) is 13% lower than the five northern states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. This defies the conventional belief that southern states, with high literacy and women empowerment indices, will have high FLFPR.
- According to the World Bank, Indian women’s participation in the formal economy is among the lowest in the world. Only some parts of the Arab world perform worse than India in terms of FLFPR.
Reasons for the low Female Labour Force Participation rate in India:
1. High Degree of Informalization: The absence of a social security net in the informal sector discourages women’s participation.
2. Missing manufacturing: Lack of alternative employment opportunities in manufacturing and the limited number of jobs in services for women have also suppressed FLFPR in India.
3. Gender Pay Gap and Glass Ceiling: India has one of the largest gender gaps in median earnings of full-time employees. Such discriminatory practices at the workplace adversely affect FLFPR.
4. Pink Jobs: Societal notions about ‘gendered occupations’ limit the role of women to specific job profiles(nursing, teaching, gynaecologist, etc).
5. Cultural practices: Unpaid care, child care and domestic chores have hindered women’s ability to participate in the labour force. In a patriarchal society, many women are not allowed to work after marriage.
7. Safety Concerns: High incidents of violence against women discourage women from working at night like their male counterparts. Further, instances of sexual harassment in the workplace induce women to opt out of the labour force.
8. Educated Unemployment: Women are going for higher education, as seen in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of secondary education. The lack of availability of jobs that match the high female education levels also contributes to the low FLFPR.
9. Political Vacuum: The current Lok Sabha has only 14.4% women, despite women constituting around 50% of the Indian population. The lack of gender perspectives inhibits the formulation of a comprehensive policy that encourages women’s participation in economic activities.
What is the significance of enhancing Female Labour Force Participation?
1. Economic Boost: According to the IMF, gender parity in the workforce can improve India’s GDP by 27%.
2. Tackling poverty: It helps to tackle the phenomenon of feminisation of poverty, which is a result of highly informalized work performed by women.
3. Improvement in Social Indicators: Encouraging more women to enter the formal workforce will consequently improve indicators like the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR).
4. Self-Confidence and Dignity: Financial independence enables women to play a greater role in decision-making like family planning.
5. Global Commitments: Improving FLFPR is related to achievements of SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities).
Way Forward
1. Child Care Subsidies: Child-care subsidies should be provided to free up mothers’ time to enter the labour force, which would eventually have significant implications in increasing female employment.
2. Comprehensive approach to improve women’s labour force participation: A comprehensive approach aimed at improving skill development, access to child care, maternity protection, as well as provision of safe and accessible transport, is needed.
3. Removal of the legally sanctioned legislation: States should review legislation like the Factory Act, Shops and Establishment Act, etc. and liberalise the restrictions on women. Also, the best practices from well-performing States can be adopted across all States. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the only two states that allow women to work in all processes in all establishments.
4. Creation of Self-Help Groups: Self-help groups are of immense reliance and drastically enhance women’s participation, as seen in the case of the Kudumbashree model of Kerala.
5. Use of innovative solutions to enhance female retention in industries: Public crèches can be operated at worksite clusters such as near industrial areas, markets, dense low-income residential areas, and labour makes. This model has been tested successfully by the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Sangini in some Indian cities.
6. Accounting for the Care Economy: We need to account for the care economy in the GDP calculations.
Conclusion
There is a need to take multiple steps to augment female labour force participation in India to realise the numerous social and economic benefits that accrue from the greater presence of women in the workforce. Moreover, it can help India move from women-centric development to women-led development.