Female labour force participation across India has continuously declined and languished at about 27.5 percent since 2015-16 which is considerably lower than it was a decade earlier. This is in spite of India witnessing unparalleled 9 percent annual growth rates, marked improvement in the human development indicators, a sizable decline in fertility rates, greater illiteracy and more education. What is causing this alarming decline in participation by women in India’s workforce? What are possible solutions? PREPARED BY: Anika Gururaj Summer Research Intern @ The Takshashila Institution

1. THE PARADOXICAL
TALE OF INDIA’S
WORKING WOMAN
What is causing this
alarming decline in
participation by
women in India’s
workforce?
What are proposed
solutions?
​ PREPARED BY:
​ Anika Gururaj
​ July 25, 2019
Version 1.0
Internal

2. 2|
The Paradox in
Women’s
Employment
​ Analysis of the alarming decline in participation of women in India’s
workforce fueled by a vicious unending spiral of endemic inequity, the
present hopeless mirage of jobless growth and the high hurdle of
regressive patriarchal social norms.
Female labour force participation
across India has continuously declined
and languished at about 27.5 percent
since 2015-16 which is considerably
lower than it was a decade earlier. This
is in spite of India witnessing
unparalleled 9 percent annual growth
rates, marked improvement in the
human development indicators, a
sizeable decline in fertility rates,
greater illiteracy and more education.

3. 3|
The Vexing
Paradox in
Women’s
Employment
Participation
Levels
Decline in Participation of Women
Participation: Women 25% vs, Men 75%
Employability: Women 46% vs, Men 47%
Improving
Education
Economic
Growth
Higher
Incomes
Greater
Empowerment

4. 4|
Why is this decline an important issue?
Economic Productivity & Growth
Were India to rebalance its workforce, it would become 27% richer. The
unrealised contribution of women is one major reason India remains poor.
Tackle Poverty
With additional income women will spend more on food, health, clothing,
and education of their children helping alleviate overall poverty.
Justice & Equity
Gender equality should be a fundamental right – e.g. women being paid
34 percent less than men for the same job is unjust.
Empowering Women
Employed women have greater agency and voice and their bargaining
power within their households increases significantly.

5. 5|
Why are women leaving the workforce? (1)
Economic
• Jobless growth adversely impacts employment across classes & gender.
• Burgeoning young and middle class population puts pressure all round.
• More women exited labour force in the aftermath of demonetization.
Widespread Under Reporting
• Some formal sector work by women in rural families is going unrecorded.
• Informal workers are not on any payroll or have a formal contract.
• Drastic increase in the number of unpaid women helpers.
• Women nominally employed in marginal work at low wage part time work disguises
the underemployment of women.
Income Effect
• Family income increases induce women to opt out of formal work.
• Preference for family/farm tasks over distress employment.
• More educated / skilled women earn more, allowing them to work less.
• Educated women marry into richer families and stop working.

6. 6|
Why are women leaving the workforce? (2)
Gender Bias & Segregation
• Substantial wage gaps discourage women from taking up jobs.
• Gender bias in access to formal work.
• Gender segregation in economic activity & government programs
(NREGA).
• Women and men face differential access to productive inputs and
often differential treatment by markets and institutions.
Unfavorable Employment Landscape
• Lack of jobs in labor intensive female-friendly sectors.
• Decline in rural jobs & agriculture work.
• Lack of mobility to new jobs far from residence.
• Urban job opportunities are less hospitable to rural women.

7. 7|
Why are women leaving the workforce? (3)
Cultural
• Women staying in education for longer in larger numbers.
• Prevalence of regressive social norms & patriarchal traditions.
Persisting stigma surrounding the idea of women working.
• Less voice in societal and household decision making.
Women’s Health & Safety
• Higher mortality skews population ratio.
• Sexual violence and unsafe work environments for women –
especially Muslim and lower-caste women.

8. 8|
Solutions: Bridge Gender Gap & Affirmative Labor Laws (1)
• Enact labor market policies that combine training, placement, and other support to enable women to
enter or reenter the workforce. Interestingly, women who have attended skills or vocational training,
whether formal or informal, are more likely to be working. Women who have participated in skills
(vocational) training have higher levels of FLFP, regardless of educational levels.
• Create support networks for women to mitigate against the gendered network bias that hinders
women workers, farmers, or entrepreneurs. Women can aid one another through the sharing of skills
and this gives them more confidence. Research has shown that when a women works with a friend,
her confidence is boosted and she invests in enterprise more.
• Remove discriminatory treatment in labor laws and regulations to promote women’s economic
opportunities and address discrimination in labor markets. Laws such as the Factory Act prevent
women from working later hours must be abolished in order to promote flexibility in women’s work. It is
wrong to ask a woman to work fewer hours in order to avoid abuse. Instead of discouraging women
from working at later times of the day, hold workshops on abuse and take steps to reduce workplace
harassment through the enforcement of existing legislature. Both these actions could lead to a fall in
the number of women leaving the workforce.

9. 9|
Solutions: Education and Cultural (2)
• Better education is one of the reasons why FLFP is actually lower now. In the long run, education
would be important for the encouragement of women into the workforce. However, in the short run,
vocational training is more effective than basic education. Furthermore, the training is relatively
cheaper than higher education, which is further incentive.
• Increase women’s voice in households via greater financial inclusion. Microfinance is extremely
efficient in providing women with the financial support needed to be more independent. If the
government sets up a format that allows women to borrow small amounts of money at low interest
rates, they could increase their voice in the household due to their empowered position as a
breadwinner.
• Drive awareness programs to help alleviate gender stereotypes and enhance household perceptions
of the value of daughters. Without this, women will never be given the opportunity to gain skills to join
the workforce and gain independence from their father, brother or husband.

10. 10|
Solutions: Workplace Improvements (3)
• Establish better and more flexible working conditions such as timings and flexi-work.
• Improve parental and maternity leave policies to reduce dropout of women.
• Ensure provision of subsidised childcare. If companies enforce legislature that guarantee
childcare till the age of six, women would be more inclined to remain in the workforce upon
childbirth.
• Improve public transport systems and provide women subsidised travel. Where travel is
difficult, costly, or constrained due to norms linked to mobility, proximity to jobs is an
important constraint. While evidence of the importance of job proximity in India is low, in
nearby Bangladesh, factory placement is predictive of who works. Women living in close
proximity to garment factories were 6.5 to 15.4 percentage points more likely to be
employed than women far away from them.

11. 11|
Solutions: Heath & Safety (4)
• Enact and enforce laws to deal with the abuse of sex selection technologies to reduce female
mortality and skewed sex ratios at birth. While it is true that technologies that interfere with the
growth of a fetus are beneficial in the case of hereditary diseases, they should not be applied to
influence gender. Eliminating this option can also help positively influence people’s attitude
towards a girl child.
• Accessibility to contraceptives among women to give greater control and timing over child birth.
• Increasing the vigilance of police in cities to ensure safety of women. Encourage women to join
the police would provide both employment and great assurance to women. Improved street
lighting in cities ensures women feel safer to work fuller days and evening shifts.
• Ensure public transport is more reliable and accessible. This allows women to take up work at
more distant locations from home, saves their time and reduces cost. Further expansion of the
metro and subdised travel women passenger in various cities could help achieve this.
• For the informal sector, these improvements in health and safety will most likely make a larger
impact on FLFPR, along with cultural modifications such as the empowerment of these women.

12. 12|
Conversation with Takshashila Researchers
Sowmya Prabhakar
Head of Corporate Affairs, Takshashila Institution
Sowmya Prabhakar has 15+ yrs of diverse experience, which combines both Corporate and Social
Sector. Previously she was the Chief Impact Officer at Rang De.
Rohan Seth
Project Manager, Takshashila Institution
Rohan Seth holds a Master’s in Public Policy from University College London, was a scholar from the
University of Westminster and worked with NITI Aayog.
Nandini Ohri
Researcher, Takshashila Institution
Nandini Ohri is a political science graduate at OP Jindal Global University and has worked at E&Y
government advisory group and interned at Tenaganita Sdn Bhd.
Click to Play Podcast:

13. 13|
Acknowledgements / Advisors
Nitin Pai
Co-Founder & Director, Takshashila Institution
Nitin Pai is co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research
and education in public policy.
Sowmya Prabhakar
Head of Corporate Affairs, Takshashila Institution
Sowmya Prabhakar has 15+ yrs of diverse experience, which combines both Corporate and Social
Sector. Previously she was the Chief Impact Officer at Rang De.
Pranay Kotasthane
Head of Research, Takshashila Institution
Pranay Kotasthane heads research at the Takshashila Institution. working on the New World Order
project, the Intelligence Reform project, and State Finances in India.
Anupam Manur
Assistant Professor, Takshashila Institution
Anupam Manur research interests lie at the intersection of economics, technology, and public policy.
His works including platform economics and India’s ongoing jobs crisis.

14. 14|
General References / Bibliography (1)
1. Surbhi Ghai, "The Anomaly of Women’s Work and Education in India", Working Paper 368,
December 2018, ICRIER, India Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
http://tinyurl.com/y6p8z7j6
2. Sher Verick and Ruchika Chaudhary, "Women’s labour force participation in India: Why is it so
low?", 2014, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia. http://tinyurl.com/yxsobmu6
3. Erin K. Fletcher, Rohini Pande, and Charity Troyer Moore, "Women and Work in India: Descriptive
Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies", CID Faculty Working Paper No. 339, December
2017, Center for International Development at Harvard University. http://tinyurl.com/y5po4ukd
4. Esha Chatterjee,Sonalde Desai, and Reeve Vanneman, "Indian paradox: Rising education,
declining women’s employment", Research Article Volume 38, Article 31, March 2018,
Demographic Research. http://tinyurl.com/yyz2p9jf

15. 15|
General References / Bibliography (2)
5. "World Development Report 2012 - Gender Equality and Development", 2011, The International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. http://tinyurl.com/ohlnfgd
6. United Nations Development Program – Human Development Report.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/indicators/123306
7. Urmila Chatterjee, Rinku Murgai, and Martin Rama, "Job Opportunities along the Rural-Urban Gradation
and Female Labor Force Participation in India", Policy Research Working Paper 7412, September 2015,
World Bank Group. http://tinyurl.com/y4juvj5d
8. Luis A. Andres, Basab Dasgupta, George Joseph, Vinoj Abraham, and Maria Correia,"Precarious Drop
Reassessing Patterns of Female Labor Force Participation in India", Policy Research Working Paper
8024, April 2017, World Bank Group. http://tinyurl.com/yxppazkn
9. Takshashila conversation by Devika Kher, Policy Analyst, Takshashila Institution.
https://nationalinterest.in/social-shackles-and-women-employment-b6f26d5fbef5https://thewire.in/labour/
why-having-more-women-in-the-workforce-is-good-for-the-economy

16. 16|
​ Prepared By:
​ Anika Gururaj
​ Research Intern
​ anika.gururaj@gmail.com

17. 17|
Takshashila’s Values
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partisan
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be guided by India’s national
interest, and independent of
the interests of donors,
partners, political parties etc

18. 18|
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