Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, the condition of female workforce deteriorated to an unprecedented level of 20.3 per cent in 2019 from more than 26 per cent long back in 2005. The World Bank estimate compared it with 30.5 per cent in neighbouring Bangladesh and 33.7 per cent in Sri Lanka in 2019. COVID-19 exacerbated the situation and FLPR fell to 15.5 per cent during April-June 2020, and 16.1 per cent during July-September 2020, which was lowest among major economies, according to India’s NSO data. World Bank estimates, India has one of the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world, and even less than a third or working age women above 15 years of age are working or actively looking for a job.

No wonder, India still ranked as low as 135th out of 146 countries in the Global Gendar Gap Report 2022 compiled by the World Economic Forum, while in “health and survival” sub-index it was tagged as the worst performer. In business as usual scenario South Asia will take the longest to reach gender parity, which is estimated to be likely in 197 years as against the global 132 years. India is the largest country in the region with largest population and economy, however, ranks poorly in comparison to neighbours, such as Bangladesh ranking 71, Nepal 96, Sri Lanka 110, Maldives 117, and Bhutan 126.

It is despite Modi government’s numerous programmes for women’s empowerment, and their posing as championing the women’s cause. The ground level situation is self explanatory that proves utter failure of the government and their planning and programmes. It has resulted into even lower rank of 143rd for India in economic participation and opportunity, a subset in Global Gender Gap Index. The labour force participation has further shrank by 3 per cent for women since 2021, it has pointed out.

NITI Aayog the official think tank of India, a creation of PM Modi, has provided a sort of defence in a recent study titled “India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy: Perspective and Recommendations on the Future of Work” which said, “NSSO data (1970-2018) indicated that an increase in household incomes have led to an apparent decline in the “need” for women to work.” It is not true in the present scenario. Food security report 2022 has said that 973.4 million people ie 70.5 per cent of population in India were not able to afford even healthy food that could have been purchased at 2.9 dollar a day. Then the pandemic added 230 million more to poverty, which has further exacerbated adding several millions more. Even the latest CMIE data has said that employment have been lost by 14 millions in June 2022, which was worst in two years after June 2020, when the country began opening after the lockdown.

Women are in reality facing challenges at every step. They typically face constraints related to time, their dual responsibilities defined by social norms and disadvantages related to poverty and intersecting inequalities. Women, more than men, are concentrated in jobs that are low paid and devoid of social security. This is primarily a result of two factors – discrimination and occupational choices, as the NITI Aayog study mentions.

Aside from receiving lower wages, women also tend to choose lower paying jobs like clerical over production jobs. Moreover, there is a confluence of other varied factors such as less access to education and less work experience than men that further reduce the earning potential of women. Girls and women in India has still lower accessibility to education and skilling systems presently available for them resulting in very low access to quality secure regular salaried jobs with full social security coverage.

Against this general condition, Modi government is now drumming up for gig and platform economy, that lacks the security and regularity of jobs and wages. It may divert the attention from the miserable conditions of the women workforce in the country and joblessness or unemployment among them.The NITI Aayog study says that gig economy offers women a wide choice of work and flexible arrangements enabling them to have an income along with managing their normative responsibilities of care work in their household. However, there could be certain factors restricting women’s access, their ability to continue in their chosen profession and their upward mobility.
The WESO Report of ILO 2021, has even noted a low level of women’s participation in digital labour platforms, representing only four in ten workers on online web-based platforms and one in ten workers on location based platforms. It shows how much difficult for women is to get jobs in online labour market. It is not very different from the difficulties faced by women in off line labour market.

Gender inequalities in access to digital technology are also proving a restrictive factor for women workforce. Data suggests that women’s access to internet and to smart phones is much lower than men in both urban and rural areas. According to the GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021, only 25 per cent women owned smartphones compared to 41 per cent men in India. While smartphone and internet are important for several reasons including education and work, the NITI Aayog study says that women still lag behind and are less likely to own mobile phones and digital devices due to both economic and socio-cultural restrictions. When income in a household is scarce, it is often male members who get all opportunities ranging from food to education that ultimately harm the prospects for women. Rural women are more likely to lose the jobs that require women’s in person presence at workplace in urban areas, and migration for women is not so easy.

Women’s normative responsibilities and the double burden of work is another problem. They have unpaid care and household work in abundance. Social and household dynamics continue to govern intra-household division of labour which in turn obstruct the choice of paid work, particularly when they do not have access to child care support. A vast majority of women workforce, find themselves unable to continue in any form of employment and more so in employment that lacks job security and future career prospects. In India, informal sector employs above 90 per cent of the workforce, and employment in this sector falls in this category.

Apart from lack of job security, there is gender based occupational segregation of tasks and also pay gap for the same work in almost all sectors of the Indian economy. Discrimination against female workers, violence, and harassment are other factors that deter female participation in the labour market. Resistance from the women workforce against such things lead generally to exclusion from work opportunities or low pay. The timings for work, such as during night, and odd hours is also a major deterrent for women, and there are genuine concerns regarding their personal safety in a country where crime against women is very high, especially sex related crimes that have gone up 70 per cent in the past two decades.

India thus needs a multisectoral approach to improve women’s participation in the national labour force. Apart from access to education, skills, and jobs, conducive working environment is imperative, at home, workplace, and in society.