Key Points
- India’s female labour force participation stands at about 35 per cent, below Bangladesh and the Philippines.
- Unpaid care work, mobility constraints and limited opportunities continue to restrict women’s employment.
- Weak labour demand and fewer labour-intensive industries are also limiting access to productive jobs.
ISLAMABAD: Indian women face a combination of social, economic and labour-market barriers that keep their participation in paid employment well below that of several Asian peers.
India’s female labour force participation rate stands at about 35 per cent, compared with 42 per cent in Bangladesh and 50 per cent in the Philippines.
Although it rose from 21 per cent in 2017-18, more than 70 per cent of the increase came from agriculture and subsistence activities, where employment can be irregular, underproductive, and mostly unpaid.
UN Women technical brief
One of the biggest hurdles is the unequal distribution of unpaid care work. Indian women spend about 22 per cent of their day on unpaid care activities, compared with 6.4 per cent for men, according to a United Nations Women technical brief.
Household responsibilities can therefore limit the time women have available for paid employment. Restrictions on mobility, social expectations and limited access to suitable workplaces can add to these constraints.
Education, however, no longer explains the gap to the same extent. Female enrolment now matches or exceeds male enrolment at every level in India. Child marriage has also fallen by nearly half since 2005-06, while women’s participation in elections has increased substantially.
Female voter turnout was about nine percentage points below male turnout in 1996. By 2024, it had marginally exceeded male turnout.
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Yet these social and educational gains have not translated into a comparable increase in non-farm employment. The female-to-male non-farm employment ratio has risen by only about 5 per cent over the past two decades.
This points to another hurdle: the Indian economy does not generate enough labour demand.
India is less labour-intensive than several comparable Asian economies. Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam employ roughly 40 to 50 workers to produce $1 million of gross domestic product, compared with about 35 workers in India.
The difference matters for women because economies with more labour-intensive industries tend to create more employment opportunities for people entering the workforce.
Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry illustrates this relationship. The sector accounted for only 4 per cent of the country’s exports in 1983 but reached 81 per cent by 2021, with exports worth $41 billion. Women now account for more than 60 per cent of its workforce.
Without the garment industry expansion, Bangladesh’s female labour force participation would be closer to India’s level, according to the analysis.
India’s employment structure has also shifted towards sectors that use more capital and fewer workers. Low-skilled, labour-intensive industries account for about 16 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with roughly 20 to 26 per cent in Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
Regulatory barriers add to hurdles in women’s employment
Regulatory barriers add another hurdle. Around 15 per cent of Indian firms identify labour regulations as a major constraint, compared with 3.4 per cent in Bangladesh and 6.4 per cent in the Philippines.
Complex compliance requirements and restrictions affecting hiring can increase the cost of employing workers. Businesses may respond by investing more in machinery and other forms of capital instead of hiring additional workers.
Weak labour demand is also reflected in youth unemployment. Unemployment among graduates aged 15 to 25 is around 40 per cent, suggesting that the economy is not creating enough suitable jobs for an increasingly educated workforce.
The employment challenge therefore extends beyond changing social attitudes. India also needs an economic structure capable of generating more jobs.
India’s female employment challenge is therefore shaped by several interconnected hurdles. Unpaid care responsibilities and social restrictions remain important, but limited labour demand, a capital-intensive growth structure and regulatory barriers also determine whether women who are willing and able to work can find productive employment.
