A BUDGET BOOST FOR MORE WOMEN AT WORK

THE Union Budget for 2024-25 has allocated more than 3 lakh crore for schemes benefitting women and girls.

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If used properly, this allocation can be a game-changer for a country that has witnessed extremely low participation of women in the workforce. India ranks 129th in the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Gender Gap index among 146 countries.

The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) reported the participation rate of women in the workforce was at 35.9 percent in 2022-23, while that of men was 76 percent a gap of over 40 percentage points.

Though women's participation has increased 13.9 percentage points from the PLFS round of 2017-18, it is mostly attributed to self-employment, at around 65 percent. Women's concentration in self-employment, mostly informal, has remained a major concern from a policy perspective as it reflects low-quality work and challenges in accessing social security.

Employment generation and improving employability have remained the top priorities for the government. There have been various initiatives to promote women's participation.

The PLFS has shown women are mostly employed in services and manufacturing sectors. The latest budget aims to support working women through setting up hostels in collaboration with industry and establishing creches, a significant step for boosting women's ability to work across sectors.

Some other proposals to encourage women's work participation include promotion of women-specific skilling programmes and market access for women's self-help groups' products. Such initiatives have the potential to promote entrepreneurship.