Women work participation in rural Uttar Pradesh: a regional analysis (original) (raw)
Related papers
2023
Based on unit-level data of three rounds of the Employment-Unemployment Surveys (68 th , 61 st and 50 th) and two rounds of the Periodic Labour Force (2017-18 and 2018-19) Surveys of the NSS, this paper examines trends in women's labour force and work force in the two Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal since 1993-94. A comparative analysis of women's participation in the labour markets of the two Indian states shows the significance of occupational diversification in explaining the varying trends in the pattern of female employment. It explores the relevance of the nature of female employment in understanding the sustainability of such employment pattern as exists over time. Our paper highlights the extreme vulnerability attached to the self-employed status of women, be it in farm or non-farm work that women in rural U.P. and W.B. engage in and urges on the importance of publicly sponsored employment generation programmes like MNREGA as a viable alternative employment option, especially for women in rural areas. Given the abysmally low levels of participation of women in the labour markets of both U.P. and W.B., does the explanation lie in economic factors such as lack of jobs alone or do gender biased cultural norms also play a role? Our analysis suggests that it is a combination of both these factors to which a low and declining women's participation in labour markets must be attributed to.
Increasing Trend of Employment among Rural Women
Globally, about half of all women work, and recent increases in rates of female labor force participation have contributed to enrich economy and falling gender gap in employment in many countries. Yet, in India, trends in women's participation in the market economy are remarkable. Rural women's educational attainment and substantial economic growth over the past two decades have brought drastic change in rural and urban both areas. Present study is focused on finding of participation of rural women in govt., private, self employment and labor ship.
Agriculture is the main occupation of the people as around 70% of the people are depending on agriculture and allied activities in rural areas in India 1. In India, female work participation rate has been changing over time in general and the rural female work participation rate has increased in particular. As per national sample survey (68 th Round), the worker-population ratio for female folk in rural sector was 24.8 in 2011-12, while that for male-folk it was 54.3; and in urban sector, it was 14.7 for females and 54.6 for males 2. In Chhattisgarh, the rural area, total female workers are increasing compared to the total male workers, indicating an increase in women work force participation rate in agricultural activities.
Rural Non-Farm Employment in Assam: A Gender-Based Analysis
This study explores the rural labour market in Assam. The Work Participation Rates (WPR) for males has increased during the period 1993-94 to 2009-10, whereas the same for females has been fluctuating around a lower level of 15 to 20 per cent. Thus, unemployment rates for females have been higher than males. A sector-wise distribution of workers shows that the proportion of males employed in the farm sector has been declining in favour of the Non-Farm Sector (NFS), while the females are more concentrated in the farm sector. Thus, females stand in a more disadvantageous situation in the rural labour market as indicated by their low WPR, higher unemployment rates and low level of diversification into NFS. However, gender equality is necessary for growth. This is more so with regard to education and employment. India has introduced the concept of inclusive growth in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Inclusive growth ensures opportunities for all sections of the population, with a special emphasis on the poor, particularly women and young people, who are most likely to be marginalised. A rapidly growing population in India has not only increased the size of the rural labour force but has also led to fragmentation of land holdings. Thus, this sector alone cannot create additional employment opportunities, even in high growth agriculture states of India. This has led to the growth of a vibrant non-farm sector. The study comes up with the suggestion that the NFS, with its greater potential of employment generation, can not only solve the unemployment problem, but can also lead to the increased access of women to resources and employment opportunities.
An Economic Analysis of Women Working in Non-Farm Sector in a Selected Area of Kushtia District
2002
The study examines the nature and extent of women's participation in non-farm sector covering 70 women workers of Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia district. The selected available workers were classified according to household income, of which 34 of them were very poor, 8 were medium poor and 28 were moderately well-to-do. Evidence showed that female workers were mostly engaged in non-farm sector, 95 per cent of the very poor women workers worked as day labourer while 64 per cent under moderately well to do households worked in services. Twenty and 30 per cent of the selected rural women workers were respectively divorced and widow. The female workers worked monthly on an average 17.95, 9.70 and 13.73 man-days in non-agricultural activities respectively for very poor, medium poor and moderately well-to-do workers while the male counterparts worked 21.88, 26.00 and 19.43 man-days. The annual household incomes of very poor, medium poor and moderately well-to-do groups were Tk. 36074, ...
A Geographical Analysis of Female Work Participation in Rural Areas of North Bengal
Female participation in the workforce is an important indicator to access the progress of a society as the wheel of development should be drawn equally both by men and women. But unfortunately in the rural parts of India, women are only confined in agricultural and allied activities and a major section of them is still unemployed or they have been kept away from economic activities as nonworkers. So, it is very essential to identify the backward areas in terms of female work participation to properly implement strategies for regional development. This paper attempts to analyse the spatial pattern of female participation in various economic and employment generating activities in rural areas of North Bengal.
Female Labour Participation in Rural and Urban India: Does Housewives’ Work Count?
Labour force participation in India responds to economic, social, cultural and demographic mechanisms. Employment, unemployment, and unpaid labour were all measured in the 1999/2000 Indian National Sample Survey. Men’s official labour-force participation stood at 85% and women’s at 35%. The overall rate of labour force participation among women had fallen since 1989. Furthermore, measurement issues create doubt about the real rates of change of women’s self-employment. Women’s domestic and farming work can sometimes arguably be classified as self-employment. However many women instead report themselves as housewives. The statistics reveal a U curve of female employment by education levels. A detailed measurement of both domestic work and other unpaid work is provided. Women in the Muslim cultural group do more extra-domestic work (and are more likely to be ‘inactive’) than women in other cultural groups. Economic poverty causes employment to be more likely. We provide a number of reasons which help explain both the work patterns and the housewifisation pattern. These include both subjective factors as well as economic and demographic factors.
Measuring Female Work Participation in Rural India: What Do the Primary and Secondary Data Show?
2018
A serious problem related to structural changes in the Indian economy has been the low and declining worker-population ratio (WPR) of women in rural India over the last two to three decades. Fluctuations in the estimated number of workers across different categories of workers suggest the probability of classification errors in the National Sample Survey Organisation's (NSSO) Employment and Unemployment Surveys (EUS). From the point of view of the conceptual validity of economic activity and to prevent possible measurement errors, it is preferable to calculate augmented WPR by including the specified activities category (i), i.e., production of primary goods for home consumption, including animal husbandry. The trend in female WPR after 2011-12 is unknown as the NSSO stopped disseminating EUS data. After examining comparability with the Labour Bureau's EUS data, we use the latter to extend female WPR up to 2015-16. This exercise shows that the decline of female WPR after 2004-05 decelerated but continued till 2015-16. Village surveys conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) in West Bengal in 2010 and 2015 show that female employment opportunities outside the village were limited, and that most employment was in agriculture. Further, female WPRs in West Bengal are low. Animal husbandry is an important aspect of the work of women in the village. A majority of female workers engaged in animal husbandry belong to poor, marginal, and landless households in the village. We argue that WPR defined as usual principal and subsidiary status (UPSS), plus specified activity participation rate, may be more appropriate for measuring women's participation in economic activities in rural areas, than WPR (UPSS) alone.
Women, work, and employment outcomes in rural India
Economic & Political Weekly, 2010
An earlier version of this paper was presented at a workshop on Gaps, Trends and Current Research in Gender Dimensions of Agricultural and Rural Employment, organised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organisation ...