Resource information
Since economic liberalization in the
early 1990s, India has experienced high economic growth and
made considerable progress in gender equality in areas such
as primary education. However, it fared poorly on
gender-parity in labor force participation (LFP). During the
period between 1993-94 and 2011-12, female labor force
participation rate (LFPR) remained consistently low as
compared to male participation. More alarming is the fact
that female participation rate declined steadily during the
same period, particularly in rural areas. The low level
along with declining trend in rural female LFP poses a
serious threat of 'missing gender' in the labor
force. Although economic growth added jobs for both men and
women in India till 2005, Indian women lost jobs in the next
seven years, while men continued to gain, thereby widening
the gender gap. The actual figures in 2012 suggest that
approximately 35 to 40 million women are 'missing'
from the labor force, had female LFP grown at the same rate
as it had between 1999 and 2005.1 This represents a
troubling trend considering the potential of these women to
contribute to the country's productivity. To better
understand the existing situation, this report investigates
gender and female labor force dynamics by drawing mostly on
data from five rounds of the National Sample Survey, India,
between 1993-94 and 2011-12. Key findings from the study are
grouped below in three sections. First section describes the
dynamics of female LFP looking at its evolution in previous
two decades. The next section presents the drivers of low
level of female participation and its declining trend. The
last section proposes possible areas of action.
