Neelam Choudhary
Women have been granted permanent commission in army as per a Supreme Court verdict, the latest step in a series, the others being eight crore beneficiaries of ujjawala, poshan abhiyaan, abolishing of triple talaq etc. While these small positive steps coupled with a few vital Statistical figures like Total Fertility Rate (close to Replacement level of 2.1 children), falling Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), improvement in life expectancy, narrowing down of literacy gap etc. did bring smiles on the faces of Indian women on this year’s women’s day, there are some more alarming signals that continue to wipe the smile off their faces. Indian women in workforce have declined from 35% in 1990 to 26.9% in 2018 (World Bank 2018) as against the global average at 48.47 . It has observed a steep decline since 2005 ( 36.78%) . In many high income countries, during 1990-2018, the share of women in workforce increased, due to women-friendly policies. On the contrary, India is one of the ten worst performers in this regard. In a published work The Power of parity: Advancing Women’s equality in Asia -Pacific (2018), Jonathan Woetzel and others have concluded that in Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, less than one third women participate in the workforce, while the corresponding figure for East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa is two third. The study cited above also demanded more steps towards gender parity, as a 10% increase in women’s LFP rate shall increase Indian GDP to $ 770 Billion, (an increase of 1.14%). Given this scenario, one fails to understand why rapid economic growth and increased educational enrolment of women failed to transform this aspect of the economy.
For many decades, the scholars attributed low labour participation of women to J shaped or U shaped curve . In other words, it was observed that women stay out of workforce initially , as they want to get higher education to enter the workforce later on for better job prospects. But even this myth gets busted now, as the proportion of women not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) is about four times that of men. Why do improved figures wear thin in this regard? The reason is that women’s participation is a multidimensional phenomenon. On the one hand, we have been observing more and more women from well off families to be getting higher education. On the other hand, studies have substantiated higher incomes of the husbands as responsible for their non-participation. But does a woman work only for money? Here we may factor in social attitudes playing a significant role . In a 2016 study on social attitudes , 40-60% people reported that married women should stay home. So any legistative change , howsoever powerful doesn’t hold a magic wand, when the society at large doesn’t back the departure from the past.
Moreover, just participation is not enough. Retention is equally important. As per a CMIE study ,the female labour force participation rate of the 20-24 age group increased by 2.5 percentage points from 10.9 per cent during January-April 2018 to 13.4 per cent during January-April 2019.But another study gives a wakeup call. That women in the twenties work with great enthusiasm(more in urban than rural areas), only to exit the labour force in their thirties and thereafter not only means that women’s participation is not permanent, but also highlights one more changing trend; this figure increases in the rural areas post thirties, when it is time for the urban women to exit owing to care work post motherhood. Here again acts like Maternity Benefit Act 2017 (after motherhood) provide no sure fire guarantee of retention of women in workforce.
If figures keep declining and nothing is done to reverse the scenario, it would surely lead us to a crisis, not because women will not be able to come out of their shells, as enough is not being done, but because the economy will run the risk of not realizing the potential hidden in working women. The policy makers, families and other institutions, people at public places, in general all the stakeholders of the society have a lot of leeway to make up if participation of women in workforce is to be encouraged and sustained by making the world safe for them. Let us not forget that there is a disaster in the making!
(The author is Assistant Professor of Economics, DDE, University of Jammu)
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