Context: The National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) most recent annual report of Periodic Labour Force Survey indicates an increase in aggregate employment rates, after a prolonged period of decline since 2011-12.
This is dominantly due to a significant rise in women’s work force participation. However, this spurt in women’s workforce participation must be interpreted with great caution.
Relevance of the Topic: Mains: Women’s workforce participation- Trends, Concerns, etc.
Analysis of Women’s Workforce Participation
- Dramatic rise in women’s workforce participation:
- Men’s work participation rates have risen slightly from 71.2% in 2017-18 to 76.1% in 2023-24.
- However, for women, it rose from 22% in 2017-18, to reach 40.3% in 2023-24.
- Rural females vs. Urban females:
- Women’s workforce participation increased in both rural and urban areas
- The increase was particularly sharp in rural India.
- Persistence of Jobless Growth:
- NSSO includes ‘unpaid helpers in family enterprises’ in its classification of workers.
- It is in this category where most of the increase in women’s “employment” occurs.
- This indicates that the benefits of GDP growth have not translated into higher employment, hence persisting jobless growth.
Concerns with Data Classification
- ILO’s definitions of work and employment make it clear that employment is ONLY that subset of work for which remuneration is received.
- Since “unpaid helpers” are clearly not the primary workers who would receive remuneration, they should not really be classified as “employed” at all.
- Further, NSSO classifies those engaged in Codes 92 and 93 as “not in the labour force”, so they are excluded from the employment data.
- Codes 92 and 93 include the activity classifications that cover unpaid work done within households.
- Code 92: engaged in domestic duties — essentially care work within the household.
- Code 93: domestic duties plus extended SNA activities like fetching fuelwood, fetching water, engaging in kitchen gardening and livestock and poultry rearing, etc.
Work Profile of Rural Women
- By 2023-24, there was a dramatic decline in unpaid workers (Codes 92 and 93) to half of the 2017-18 level.
- Significant increase in self-employment, which amounted to 95% of the increase in recorded “employment”.
- So, the decline in the proportion of unpaid women workers is almost completely explained by the increase in self-employment.
- The share of both regular and casual workers barely increased at all (together they account for less than 1/10th of rural women).
Work Profile of Urban Women
- 8 percentage point increase in women’s recorded work participation and a 6 percentage point decrease in unpaid workers.
- The increase in women’s recorded employment was split equally between regular workers and self-employed women.
- There was a decline in the proportion of both casual workers and unpaid helpers in family enterprises.
Changes in Real Wages
- Real wages for women regular workers fell in both rural and urban areas
- This suggests that much of this was distress employment.
- This could well have been in domestic work and similar occupations (significant sources of employment in urban India for poor women).
- However, the decline in real incomes from self-employment for women was even greater.
- This indicates a crowding of more women workers into relatively limited types of activities.
Gender Gap in Earnings
- The gender gap in earnings grew significantly over this period, particularly in rural areas.
- The gap is shockingly high for self-employed workers.
- Women receive only around 1/3rd of the incomes from self-employment that their male counterparts earn.
Overall, this is hardly a picture of dynamism in labour markets that is leading to more employment of women. It is necessary to move beyond that fairy tale to address the reality of women’s work in India.