An Unfinished Fight

Despite progress in women's workforce participation, India still lags behind global standards due to socio-economic, cultural, and policy challenges, necessitating urgent reforms in multiple domains

- ARUNDHATY GHOSH

The International Women's Day is here again, and everybody will voice the oft-repeated inanities about women's empowerment and the huge progress women have made. But has anything really changed on the ground?

The main markers for improvement in the status of women are education, health, participation in the labour force, pay parity, leadership positions etc. Participation of Women in the Labor Force

Let us start with the state of women's participation in the labour force in our country. Female labour force participation refers to the share of women over 15 years who are working or providing labour in a specific period for the production of goods and services. According to a recent Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report, the female labour force participation rate in India increased to 41.7 per cent in 2023-24 from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18. This figure indicates that 41.7 per cent of women aged 15 and above are actively engaged in the workforce (source: pib.gov.in).

Is that good news? Definitely, yes—because the participation of women in the labour force is steadily increasing. However, it is not a figure we can crow about, as it remains below the global average of 50 per cent and significantly lower than the male labour force participation rate in India, which stands at 78.8 per cent.

The female labour force participation rate in other countries in 2023 was:

USA - 56.5 per cent
Canada - 61.1 per cent
UK - 58.3 per cent
France - 52.8 per cent
Denmark - 59.5 per cent
China - 60.5 per cent
South Korea - 69.7 per cent
Singapore - 61.6 per cent
Vietnam - 68 per cent

Therefore, India has a long way to go before catching up with other nations (source: genderdata.worldbank.org).