IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v29y2025i2p917-948.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religion and female labor force participation in India

Author

Listed:
  • Sujata Kar

Abstract

This paper primarily aims to identify the impact of religion on currently working women in India by considering the National Family Health Survey 2015–2016 data. It also incorporates several socioeconomics variables as controls. The models are estimated with aggregate as well as disaggregated urban–rural as well as zonal data. The results suggest that compared to the Hindus, Christian and Buddhist women have higher odds of labor force participation and Muslim and Sikh women have lower odds. Extensive analysis of the data indicates that economic well‐being among the Sikhs and the status of being married among the Muslims could be the primary factors responsible for their lower workforce participation. Additionally, lower age, lower education, better economic well‐being, the status of being married, large family size, having only one child, male household heads, and younger children are associated with lower workforce participation. Furthermore, education seems to be more accessible to women from urban areas and wealthier sections. Based on these observations, the study recommends devising policies for greater provisions for higher education in rural areas and among the poorer sections of society. Also, imparting awareness and developing an understanding of the importance of female labor force participation is crucial to improve women's labor force participation in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Sujata Kar, 2025. "Religion and female labor force participation in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 917-948, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:29:y:2025:i:2:p:917-948
    DOI: 10.1111/rode.13154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13154
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rode.13154?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:29:y:2025:i:2:p:917-948. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.