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The Decline in the Labour Force Participation of Rural Women in India: Taking a Long-Run View

Author

Listed:
  • Amaresh Dubey

    (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

  • Wendy Olsen

    (University of Manchester)

  • Kunal Sen

    (University of Manchester)

Abstract

The significant fall in the labour force participation of rural women between 2004 and 2011 has been an issue that has generated considerable academic interest. In this paper, the authors look at thirty years of comparable NSS data from 1983 to 2011 of rural women’s participation in the labour force using a variety of definitions of female labour force participation that capture both market and non-market work. The authors find a long-term slow decline in the participation of rural women in wage work and self-employment, especially among dalit and adivasi women in poor agricultural labourer households. The more recent sharp decline in female labour force participation (FLP) in 2004–2011 has occurred both in market and non-market work, and across most categories of economically active women. Our analysis highlights the somewhat contradictory behaviour of rural FLP across different definitions and time periods, and across different correlates of female labour force participation, and suggests that more complex factors are at work than has usually been discussed in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Amaresh Dubey & Wendy Olsen & Kunal Sen, 2017. "The Decline in the Labour Force Participation of Rural Women in India: Taking a Long-Run View," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(4), pages 589-612, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:60:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-017-0085-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-017-0085-0
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    2. Shivakar Tiwari & Surinder Kumar, 2019. "Neo-liberal Macroeconomic Policy and Structural Transformation of Indian Economy: Impact on Income, Employment and Distribution," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(2), pages 219-238, June.
    3. Surbhi Mishra & Dukhabandhu Sahoo & Souryabrata Mohapatra, 2024. "Mapping Structural Break and Sectoral Movement on Female Employment in India Since 1991," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(3), pages 731-750, September.
    4. Deshpande, Ashwini & Singh, Jitendra, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can’t Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," IZA Discussion Papers 14639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Rajesh Gupta & Vaibhav Bhamoriya, 2021. "‘Give Me Some Rail’: An Enquiry into Puzzle of Declining Female Labour Force Participation Rate," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 46(1), pages 7-23, February.
    6. Bina Agarwal, 2020. "Labouring for Livelihoods: Gender, Productivity and Collectivity," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(1), pages 21-37, March.
    7. Bina Agarwal, 2018. "The challenge of gender inequality," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(1), pages 3-12, April.
    8. Ashwini Deshpande & Shantanu Khanna & Daksh Walia, 2024. "An Indian Enigma? Labour market impacts of the world’s largest livelihoods program," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Jihye Kim & Wendy Olsen & Arkadiusz Wiśniowski, 2020. "A Bayesian Estimation of Child Labour in India," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(6), pages 1975-2001, December.
    10. Koyel Sarkar, 2022. "Can status exchanges explain educational hypogamy in India?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(28), pages 809-848.
    11. Ashwini Deshpande & Naila Kabeer, 2021. "Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women's work between income generation, expenditure-saving, and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-130, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Thomas Chambers & Ayesha Ansari, 2018. "Ghar Mein KÄ m Hai (There is Work in the House)," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 141-163, August.
    13. Aparajita Dasgupta & Ashokankur Datta, 2023. "Geography, Religion, Caste and Gendered Lives: Evidence from an Indian Time Use Survey," Working Papers 98, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    14. Deshpande, Ashwini & Kabeer, Naila, 2024. "Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women’s work between income generation, expenditure-saving and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    15. Ashwini Deshpande & Jitendra Singh, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed out or Can't Get In? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," Working Papers 65, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.

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