India is poised to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, and its economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. But the number of Indian women in the workforce, already among the 20th lowest in the world, has been declining for years.
It is not only a problem for women, but a growing challenge to India’s own economic ambitions as the estimated 670 million women are left behind as the population grows.
The hope is that India’s burgeoning working-age population will propel its growth for years to come. Still, experts worry that this might as well become a demographic liability if India fails to ensure that its growing population, especially women, are employed.
Sheela Singh says she cried the day she handed in her resignation. She was a social worker in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, for 16 years and she loved the job.
But her family kept telling her to stay home and take care of her two children. She withstood the pressure for years, but when she found out that her daughter skipped school when she worked, she felt like she had no choice.
“Everyone always told me that my children were neglected… it made me feel really bad,” said 39-year-old Singh.
When she resigned from her job in 2020, Singh was making more money than her husband, an auto rickshaw driver whose earnings fluctuated from day to day. But no one suggested that he stop.
“His friends used to taunt him about living on my salary,” Singh said. “I thought it obviously had no value in my job, so what’s the point?”
Without Singh’s income, her family can no longer afford to live in Mumbai, one of Asia’s most expensive cities. She is now preparing to move back to her village to save money. “But there are no jobs there,” she sighed.
Women’s labor force participation peaked at 35 percent in 2004 and will drop to about 25 percent by 2022, according to calculations based on official data, said Rosa Abraham, an economist at Azim Premji University.
A national job crisis is one reason for the gap, experts say, but entrenched cultural beliefs that see women as the primary caregivers and stigmatize them for working outside the home, as in Singh’s case, is another.
The Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), which has a more restrictive definition of employment, found that only 10 percent of working-age Indian women were employed or looking for a job by 2022. This means that only 39 million women are employed in the labor force compared to 361 million men.
“The working-age population continues to grow, but employment has not kept pace, meaning the proportion of people in employment will only decrease,” said Mahesh Vyas, director at CMIE, adding that there is a serious slowdown occurred in good quality jobs in the last decade.
“This also keeps women out of the workforce, as they or their families may benefit more from taking care of the home or children, rather than toiling in low-paid work.”
The number of working-age Indian women out of work is staggering — nearly twice the total number of people in the United States.
Experts say this gap could be a huge opportunity if India can find a way to close it. A 2018 McKinsey report estimated that India could add $552 billion to its gross domestic product (GDP) by increasing the female labor force participation rate by 10 percent.