Michelle Obama’s famous remarks that “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens” deserves more attention than ever as we celebrate this International Labour Day. In India, the percentage of women employed in the labour force has dropped considerably over the past two decades. In 2020, the share plummeted to an all-time low of 18.6%. With this abysmally low rate, India has emerged as one of the worst-performing countries in the entire South Asian region. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, almost 47% of women have suffered a job loss.
Socio-cultural factors play a dominant role in influencing the participation of women in the labour force. As a result of its strict adherence to social norms and patriarchal values, Indian society disproportionately places the burden of unpaid work, which primarily includes household labour, childcare, and elderly care, on women. According to the Global Gender Gap Index, 2014, India has the highest difference between women and men in the average minutes spent per day on unpaid work—a difference of 300 minutes. Another manifestation of these gendered social norms is occupational segregation which relegates women to underpaid and low-value work. Moreover, the social stigma associated with women working outside the house has also severely affected their ability to enter the workforce.
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The double whammy of societal perception that it is the man who needs to provide for the family and women are only supplemental earners has further decreased female participation as the economy has grown. Increasing instances of violence against women is another factor that discourages women from joining the workforce. Research conducted by IWWAGE found that, between 2011-and 2017, while the all-India female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) saw an eight percentage-point decline, the overall rate of crime against women & girls tripled to 57.9%.
What has further added to the woes of women is increased mechanization in the usually labour-intensive agriculture and manufacturing sector. Such automation has caused a large-scale displacement of women employed in these sectors. The McKinsey Global Institute’s report predicts that around 12 million women in India could lose their jobs to automation by 2030.
Legislative measures such as the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, which has increased paid maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, have unintended consequences of disincentivising employers from hiring more women. The absence of similar benefits for the fathers creates a bias against the women employees. Furthermore, such legislation also reinforces women’s role as primary caregivers. Lastly, there also exists a psychological barrier in women who tend to underestimate their skills and are less confident about their ability to secure a job.
What can be done to reverse this trend? As care-activity constitutes a significant portion of women’s unpaid work, providing facilities such as creches, childcare centres, and childcare subsidies would reduce the burden on women and free up their time, enabling them to join the labour force. An appropriate model for such centres could be the Sangini Child Care Centres of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). A positive spillover effect of such care centres would be that they can generate further employment opportunities for women.
Giving a boost to women’s entrepreneurial spirit can significantly increase female participation in the labour force and the overall employment level. As per a report by Bain & Co. and Google, women entrepreneurs in India can generate up to 150-170 million jobs by 2030. In addition, the digital gender divide also ought to be bridged. According to NFHS data, there are only 33% of female internet users compared to 57% of male internet users. Bridging this gap in digital access would allow women to explore the option of remote working arrangements, which could give them more control over their time and improve their participation in the workforce.
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Thus, addressing the challenge of decreasing female labour force participation would require developing a comprehensive mechanism comprising the state, community and household. It is only through the combined efforts of these various institutions that India can bring about the economic empowerment of the other half of its population.
The author is a student at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi and a Writing Fellow at Fellowship for Freedom in India. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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