Recently UNDP, in association with IKEA Foundation has brought out a report titled “Female work and labour force participation in India”.

Background :

• The focus of this report has been to understand the continuing problem of low female labour force participation in India despite massive investments in employment and skill-building initiatives.
• FLFP is typically measured as the share of women who are employed or are seeking work as a share of the working-age female population.According to World Bank, India’s Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR), has fallen to a historic low of 23.3% in 2017-18.
• The largest decline in employment was experienced in the primary sector. In contrast, the services sector grew in employment by 6.6 million.
• The rural FLFPR is significantly higher than urban FLFPR.

Reasons for low female labour force participation :

• Lack of comprehensive policy support and effective implementation: While several policies exist to enable financial support, training, placements and outcomes, few national polices focus on providing support services, such as lodging, safe and convenient travel, migration support and childcare, that enable women to access skilling programmes or be part of the workforce.
• Education-Employment Trade-off: Demand for employment for high school and university graduates has not kept pace with the large supply of women looking for such work. Therefore, more educated women do not wish to work in jobs that do not match with their aspirations and there are not enough salaried opportunities available for women with moderate levels of education like clerical and sales jobs.
• Gender Pay Gap: According to Global Wage Report 2018-19, India has one of the highest Gender Pay Gap of 34%. This pay gap is due to occupational segregation; cultural barriers (including less education opportunities available to women); and unpaid household work done by women.
• Competing Outcomes of the Household and Labour Market: A large proportion of the women who left the labour market are married. Also, husband’s income (and education) contributes to the withdrawal of women from the labour force through a household income effect.

Maternity factor: Many women who join the workforce are unable to re-join after having a child. Maternity benefits Act 2016 increased cost for companies and may have discouraged them from hiring women. The estimated loss of female jobs was between 1.1 to 1.8 million for 2017-18, over and above the usual job loss due to attrition related to maternity.

Non - availability of quality day-care is one factor which inhibits women from returning to work after their maternity leave. Similarly, if women's perceived productivity at home is greater than their returns in the labour market, women are likely to withdraw from the labour force.

Barriers to migration for women as in the last decade, there has been only a marginal increase in the proportion of rural women (of working age) who worked in urban areas. Even international migration for work remains a challenge for women. Women comprise less than one-fourth of the total Indian migrant stock.

• Social Norms and Agency: Deep-rooted social norms, lack of agency and gendering of occupations often leads to women having little choice in their employment and work decisions.

Discrimination: Employment and wage gap between male and female cannot be explained only by differences in education, experience and skills, but the unexplained aspects attributed to discrimination.

Socially disadvantaged women are more likely to be in roles without written contracts, with less paid leaves and shorter periods of engagement. In some communities, may be a stigma attached to women working outside the home (especially to certain job-roles considered menial)-which increases
family and societal pressures to drop out.

• Sexual Harassment at the Workplace:

Around 31% of the firms are not compliant with the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act (POSH), which mandates “Internal Compliance Committees” (ICCs) being constituted.

Between 2014 and 2015, cases of sexual harassment within office premises more than doubled- from 57 to 119- according to NCRB data.

Provisions for Equal Pay in India :

• United Nations SDG-8 aims to achieve “equal pay for work of equal value” by 2030.
• Article 39 of constitution (DPSP) envisages equal pay for equal work.
• Specific laws include Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, Factories Act, 1948.

Suggestions to improve FLFP :

Reorienting Policy Design :

• Modifying outcome metrics for labour market programmes by including enabling factors such as safety, aspiration alignment and so on.
• Convergence with programmes for adult education, literacy and advanced skill training and higher education. Education ecosystem needs to go through a set of system strengthening initiatives, including the introduction of digital and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in schools.

Programme Innovation -

• Using tax policies to incentivise women into the labour market on both the demand and supply side. By introducing tax incentives for enterprises that have internal complaint mechanisms, gender friendly transport services and so on.

Communication and Behavioural Change -

• Investing in large-scale social campaigns for changing social norms which break gender stereotypes, which includes women as well as redefining the role of men in households.

Support Services for Entry and Continuation -

• Providing arrangements for childcare at training centres, better stipends for travel, lodging, boarding and other expenses incurred during programme participation.
• Providing support to women who migrate in search of work and jobs.
• Developing forums for informal and formal mentorship and connections to female role models and women in leadership which is to be achieved not by tokenism but by increasing the ease of economic and political participation.

Conclusion :

• The issue of wider, deeper and more meaningful participation of women not just in the workforce, but also in legislatures, police, armed forces and the judiciary, is a complex but very critical issue. Effort, therefore, is needed to amplify the gender-sensitivity of programmes. This can be achieved for a policy by enhancing its quotient of programme components that cater to women's all-round needs.