Analysis | As India’s population booms, where are its working women?

Pinky Negi, an Indian teacher with two master’s degrees, loved her old job at a public school in the foothills of the Himalayas. But then she did what millions of Indian women do every year – she gave up her career when she got married and had kids.

Ms. Negi, who briefly tried home tuitions before the birth of her second child prompted her to quit working altogether, “The thought of not earning bothers me the most when I am most anxious. Little things have to be asked.”

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“Even if I have to ask my husband, it is still asking someone else,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in New Delhi at an office of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which works for women. Helps find work.

Ms. Negi’s experience is common in India, where women are dropping out of the workforce even at a time of strong growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

country is set to become the world’s most populous As the United Nations estimates that its population will touch 1.43 billion on April 14, it will overtake China on that day.

Economists say this means India, which is home to the largest number of people of working age, must create more jobs to not only keep its world-beating growth on track, but women-friendly employment. The status of should also be promoted.

Despite progress such as better educational attainment, better health, falling fertility rates and more women-friendly labor policies, less than a third of Indian women are working or actively looking for work.

Researchers say there are many reasons for the shortfall, from marriage, child care and domestic work to gaps in skills and education, higher household incomes, security concerns and a lack of jobs.

Policy changes that could fix these problems – such as better access to education, childcare or flexible work setups – could increase the number of working women and add hundreds of billions of dollars to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025 , as stated in a 2018 report. McKinsey consulting firm found.

“Women’s absence from the labor market lowers productivity and leads to income inequality,” said Mayurakshi Dutta, a researcher at Oxfam India. ,

Women’s work report less?

According to the latest World Bank data, women are expected to represent 23% of India’s formal and informal workforce in 2021, up from about 27% in 2005. This compared with nearly 32% in neighboring Bangladesh and 34.5% in Sri Lanka.

India’s ministries of labor and women did not respond to requests for comment.

Central government data shows the female labor force participation rate (FLFPR) increased to 25.1% in 2020/21, up from 18.6% in 2018/19.

economic survey It said earlier this year that current measurement tools were insufficient to accurately measure FLFPR, leading to under-reporting the proportion of working women.

For example, it found that the data did not reflect women’s unpaid work such as running a household, farming or income-saving activities such as collecting firewood, cooking and teaching children.

Participant Bina Tomar, 35, said, “Women have to take care of homes and we find it difficult to find full-time jobs. If I had support (at home), I would have liked to work too.” -time home based needlework.

Aya Matsuura, a gender expert at the International Labor Organization (ILO), and Peter Buwembo, a labor statistician, said that investing in the care economy could reduce the burden of unpaid care, and also create jobs in care sectors that are less likely to employ women. are the main areas. Emailed Comments.

COVID-19 Impact

Oxfam’s Dutta said improving access to quality education, training programs and skills development is critical to increasing employment opportunities for women and girls.

She added that employers should also provide gender-sensitive policies such as social security, child care, parental leave and the provision of safe and accessible transportation.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked states to use systems such as flexible working hours to retain women in the labor force, saying the country could achieve its economic goals faster if it ” Uses “woman power”.

The researchers point to public programs such as the government’s skills development scheme, which trained more than 300,000 women in 2021/22, as promising initiatives.

But they say more needs to be done, especially for women who are still feeling the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most Indian women are in low-skilled work such as farm and factory labor and domestic help, sectors that have been hit hard by Covid.

While the economy has improved since then, it has failed to restore jobs for women, who were more likely than men to lose their jobs and less likely to return to the workforce, according to the Center for Sustainable Development at Azim Premji University. Found in a report of employment.

Bhavna Yadav is one of them. The 23-year-old was a make-up saleswoman in a Delhi mall for the first time before the lockdown in March 2020, when she and her husband had to move to their in-laws’ house in northern Haryana state after they lost their jobs.

When he went back to Delhi after the ban was lifted, she stayed behind.

“Despite several calls to different companies, I had no job to go back to… Also, my husband and in-laws were against it as I was pregnant,” said the mother of two over the phone from Baroli village.

She said that her in-laws dismissed her career ambitions, saying that “being a mother is a job” or “your husband is earning”, and instead suggested that she work as a farmhand. .

“It annoys me. I deserve to do more… They don’t realize how much I miss my old life – freedom, my friends, coworkers and having my own money,” she said.

expectations ignored

Sona Mitra, principal economist at Delhi-based IWWAGE, which works to promote the FLFPR, said women’s specialized career ambitions are often dismissed in a labor market that fails to create the jobs women want. Has been

“They don’t want to work in agriculture nor do they want to work as domestic workers. They want some other kind of jobs that will give them respect, honor them and give them recognition for their abilities and their educational degrees.” Come on… where are those jobs?” Ms. Mitra said.

This often leads to unemployment and low earning potential among women, she said.

Ms. Negi, the school teacher who is in her 30s and masters Hindi and English, said she was repeatedly offered low-skilled, low-paid roles when she decided to temporarily return to work. had tried.

This brought down his morale, causing him to have an 11-year career break, which has started to put a strain on the household finances.

Today, she is looking for teaching jobs with flexible hours in schools near her home.

Ms. Negi said, “A woman has to manage everything at home and outside. We are no exception.”

“But I think my routine will be better if I get back to work… The more you go out, the more people you meet, the more fresh your mind will be.”