Takshashila Discussion Document - Women’s Labour Force Participation in India

Economic Policy
Written By Shrikrishna Upadhyaya

Executive Summary

Women’s labour force participation in India has declined considerably in the last two decades. Some of the causes include occupational segregation, an increase in women’s participation in education, lack of access to technology, and automation of agricultural jobs – intertwining to become a complex problem.

This decline is detrimental to India’s economic health as nearly half of the total labour force (constituting women) is either voluntarily dropping out or not able to work due to a lack of jobs in the country.

A policy revolution is needed which challenges the social, economic, and financial state of women – freeing them from the shackles of these issues. Inspiration in this document is drawn from Bangladesh, a neighbouring country that has succeeded in emancipating a considerable number of women from similar socioeconomic issues.

 

Authors

Featured
Sudisha Mishra
Sudisha Mishra

Sudisha Mishra was a Junior Research Scholar at The Takshashila Institution and she contributed to the 20 million jobs project. She also worked in the Global Water team of NSF, a non-profit Michigan-based public safety organisation and her key role involves strategizing campaigns for increasing use of certified components that provide safe and clean water worldwide.

Featured
Sridhar Krishna
Sridhar Krishna

Sridhar Krishna is a Senior Scholar at the Takshashila Institution where he led the 20 million jobs project before joining the group researching on AI Governance. He graduated from BITS, Pilani and has an MBA from SP Jain, Mumbai. He also works with ambitious young IT firms helping them scale and with a civil society organisation on judicial reform. Till recently, he was a Managing Director at Accenture where he worked on analytics and AI.

Shrikrishna Upadhyaya
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