Discussion Women and Work in India: Descriptive Evidence and a - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Discussion

Women and Work in India: Descriptive Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies by Fletcher, Pande and Moore

Farzana Afridi Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi) IPF, 2018

Main Comments

• Discussion of descriptives and data
• Policy recommendations – caution and suggestions

Descriptives and data:

Levels vs. trends in women’s LFP

Source: Afridi, Dinkelman and Mahajan (2018)

Female LFPR in India (15-65 years of age)

.1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 1 LFPR Male Female 1987 1999 2011

• Conf. interval

.1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 1 LFPR Male Female 1987 1999 2011

• Conf. interval

(a) Rural (b) Urban

Descriptives and data:

Rural vs. Urban LFP

• Rural
• Relatively higher level of women’s LFP
• Declining trend
• Urban
• Low level of WLFP
• Stagnancy

Descriptives and data:

Source: NSS various years (own calculations)

Women’s Labor Force Participation (Rural)

Descriptives and data:

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 1987 1999 2009 Year

LFPR (UPSS): Age 25-65

Self-Employed Casual Salaried

Policy implications can vary depending on location and sector

Descriptives and data:

Married vs. unmarried women

 In 2011, only 20% of rural married women in age 15-60 were in the labor force, 30 percentage points lower than for unmarried women.  While workforce participation rates amongst urban unmarried women went up by 11 ppt between 1999-2011, it has been stagnant for married women at 20% for the past thirty years.

Update analysis to 2014-15 NFHS

Policy recommendations: Supply side constraints

Cultural norms underlying the traditional role of men and women in the Indian households lead to:

• higher elasticity of women’s relative to men’s labor supply.
• non-substitutability between male and female labor in home production

Policies to reduce unpaid work – technology, infrastructure, maternity benefits and child care

Policy recommendations: Demand side constraints

• Policies to create good (read formal sector) jobs which women with relatively low levels of

education can engage in (e.g. manufacturing)

• Encourage flexible work hours, piece rate vs. hourly
• Provide safe and easier physical access to work (e.g. NREGA)
• Reduce gender gap in wages and earnings

Classify recommendations into those that address supply and demand side constraints

Policy recommendations: Caution in interpretation

• “willingness to work if made available at household” is not an

unconditional statement of lack of work

• relationship between vocational training and labor force participation

may not be causal

• pitfalls in extending effects of political quotas to making a case for job

quotas for women