Women and Indian society

News: Recently, Pew research Survey highlighted India’s low female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) and few reasons behind that.

FLFPR has worsened with the slowing of the Indian economy before the pandemic came. an FLFPR of 33.1 per cent in 2011-12 slipped to 25.3 in 2017-18, coinciding with a 45-year high in unemployment, and further to 20 per cent now, among the lowest in the world.

What can be the possible reasons behind low FLFPR?

Many theories have been given as a reason behind India’s low female labour force participation rate (FLFPR). Some of those are the following:

First, women typically exit the workplace when unemployment is high, to make way for the male workforce.

Second, many females step out of the workforce to educate themselves.

Third, as per Pew Research study, the deep-seated conservatism of Indian society is the reason behind India’s persistently low FLFPR.

What are the findings on conservatism of Indian society on FLFP?

The Pew Survey showed that more than half the Indians think men should get job preferences when jobs are scarce.

Fully 80 per cent of the Indians with college education believe women must obey their husbands.

As per UN Global Attitudes Survey (2019) a quarter of the Indians surveyed favoured the traditional family dynamic of the wife taking care of the house and children.

What are the effects of conservatism?

Following are the proof of effect of conservatism on the Indian workforce:

• According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), women accounted for 10.7 per cent of the workforce in 2019-20. However, they accounted for 13.9 per cent of the job losses in April 2020, during lockdown.
• During the three months ended September 2020, the unemployment rate among women touched 15.8 per cent against 12.6 per cent among men workers.

Some of the employments are considered “suitable” for women, such as tourism, retail, housekeeping services, and so on. These sectors have borne the brunt of pandemic the most.

As a result, on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, India has been ranked, 140th among 156 nations. India is third-worst performer in South Asia, ahead of just Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Source: This post is based on the article “Women and Indian society” published in Business Standard on 7^th March 2022.