No reason to celebrate increased women participation in workforce: Jairam Ramesh

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Accusing the Narendra Modi Government of ignoring the fine print of the women’s Labour Force Participation Ratio (LFPR), which as per the government’s statement from last month, increased from 27% in 2017-18 to 41.7% in 2023-24, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh pointed out that 84% of this increase is actually in case of self-employed women many of who are engaged in unpaid family work.

The data, he said, reveals that the women entering the workforce as either salaried workers or self-employed are earning less today than they did six years ago.

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The increase in women’s LFPR, he said, on a closer look reveals that it is primarily driven by rural women, whose entry into the labour force is driven by “economic distress”. He further pointed out that the proportion of rural women engaged in self-employment has jumped sharply from 57.7% (2017-18) to 73.5% (2023-24), and in case of urban women it has gone from 34.8% (2017-18) to 42.3% (2023-24). Unpaid family work by rural and urban women has risen from 31.7% (2017-18) to 36.7% (2023-24). 84% of the increase in the total women’s LFPR between 2017-18 and 2023-24 is accounted for by self-employment, which includes unpaid family work.

“Any modernising economy undergoes structural transformation as workers move from low-paying agricultural jobs to better prospects in manufacturing and service industries. This has tragically been reversed over the past decade,” Mr. Ramesh said.

The proportion of rural women working in agriculture has increased from 73.2% (2017-18) to 76.9% (2023-24), and remains above what it was even during the pandemic. Meanwhile the share of jobs in the modern services sector (health, education, IT etc.) for women has declined since 2021.

Underlining why the data is not promising, he also pointed out that there has been a significant dip in women’s income. “The final piece of this dismal picture is wages. After adjusting for inflation, the real average monthly wage of self-employed women plummeted by ₹3,073 between 2017-18 and 2023-24, a drop of 35%. The real wage of salaried female workers fell by ₹1,342, or a drop of 7%, over the same period,” he said.

The increase in women’s LFPR, he argued, is actually driven by rural distress and coupled with deterioration of quality of jobs and fall in real wages of female categories, gives no reason to celebrate.

“This should be seen as nothing less than a tragedy and another failed jumla of the Modi Government,” Mr. Ramesh added.