lack of enough women's representation in job market is shocking and troubling
A recent report released by the World Bank, which shows a reverse trend of women's participation in the job market, raises serious concerns and must compel our policy-makers to reflect upon what prevents India from achieving the heights many economic studies project. The report, which cited some credible data, placed India among the bottom ones for having the lowest female participation in the workforce; it ranked 120th among 131 countries. It is shameful that a rapidly developing country like India has performed worse than its neighbours such as Nepal, Sri lanka, China etc. The saving grace, however, is that we fare better than Pakistan. The report has placed some worrisome facts and figures. It states that only 27 per cent of the Indian women are working or are actively looking for a job, and that while the overall job creation has been limited, most of the new ones have been taken away by men. What is even more depressing is the fact that women participation levels have seen a drop since the last decade, particularly in the rural areas. What is staggering is that educated women in urban areas are staying out of the workplace — just about 34 per cent with a degree are working.
So, what possibly persuades women to withdraw from work is rising levels of incomes. It so happens that as income levels rise and reach a subsistence level, women stop working and prefer being at home. One may attribute this behaviour to the social structure that expects women to take care of the household work, or it may also be the case that they withdraw due to the lack of a decent job opportunity. Yet another reason, as the report suggests, is “disguised unemployment”. Which means that women choose to continue to study in the face of adverse economic and job prospects. In rural areas, however, the problem has to do with the lack of creation of unskilled manual labour. Given that the levels of education in such areas are abysmally low, there is an extreme shortage of low or medium levels jobs, barring of course agriculture. Falling levels of women workforce does not bode well for an emerging economy, more so when such workforce has the potential to boost GDP growth in a big way. This calls for the need to create more job opportunities for women, and equally the need for higher educational levels in rural areas. Admittedly, levels of educational opportunities have increased, gender ratio has improved, and the Government too has taken various initiatives — like the extension of maternity leave from 13 to 26 weeks and introduced schemes like the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna. But more needs to be done in the name of social welfare programmes. The focus must also be on changing the decadent social mindset that prevents women from being accepted as legitimate partners in growth and development. This is a task easier said than done.