Opinion | Can Skill India solve the decline in female labour force participation?

More than 1.04 crore migrant workers across the country returned to their home states amid the coronavirus pandemic-led livelihood crisis

Varsha Pillai

A 2017 World Bank Policy paper titled ‘Precarious Drop: Reassessing Patterns of Female Labour Force Participation in India’, draws attention to the sharp decline in the female labour force participation (FLFP) which saw 19.6 million women either quitting or losing jobs. More than half of this drop has been attributed to rural India, where approximately 53% of women between the ages of 15 and 24 years did not figure in the active labour force.

India’s FLFP rate ranks 121 out of 131 countries, with all other countries in South Asia, with the exception of Pakistan, faring better than India. Another recent report State of Working India by the Azim Premji University (APU) points to the much higher FLFP rate in south and Northeast India relative to the North and West of India.

Typically, women are engaged in low-skilled, low-productivity activities, and are paid far less; in fact, India’s gender gap in median earnings of full-time employees is wider than comparable countries such as Brazil. This means that women in India earn far less than men.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 acknowledged that the “lower participation of women in economic activities adversely affects the growth potential of the economy”. This view was echoed at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF), where Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said India could boost its economy by 27% if it raises “women’s participation in the workforce to the level of men”.

In this backdrop, it would be interesting to see how the government of India’s Skill India campaign, launched in 2015 with the aim of skilling 40 million Indians by 2022, measures up in helping reverse the decline in FLFP. Skill India together with the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) and the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) has built a National Skills Qualification Framework to establish standards on skilling.

A recent survey conducted by the Observer Research Foundation and World Economic Forum revealed that over 70% of youth in the age group of 15-30 years were unaware of the skill development programmes run by the government. The survey report further stated that 81% of females surveyed had never enrolled in a skill development programme. This means that more than half of the population remains bereft of information on this national mission mode skill campaign.

There are several gender barriers — of structure and agency — that prevent Indian women from joining the workforce and not all of them are connected to lack of education or skills. It is important that these are addressed.

A recent study conducted by the University of Maryland, India Human Development Surveys and National Council of Applied Economic Research published in journal Demographic Research in March, revealed that after the “secondary education level any further increase in education qualifications reduced the likelihood of employment”. The reasons attributed were the income effect wherein educated women married educated men who had good family income coupled with the fact that women would therefore not opt for jobs perceived to be below their educational qualifications.

While Skill India has all the right intentions, policymakers need to ponder the multiple micro-level vulnerabilities particularly stemming out of marriage, maternity and mobility that are at play when it comes to women’s participation in the labour force. There is need for programme interventions that address deterrents such as zero access to decent work, unsafe transit conditions, lack of a comprehensive social protection system, perhaps most importantly the absence of an inclusive work environment. Addressing these entrenched barriers will require mainstreaming gender in our labour market, employment and skilling policies combined with gender-sensitive and relevant programme design.

Essentially, we need to go beyond stereotypical norms of skilling and the feminisation of work, and adopt the capabilities of women approach to design skilling programmes accordingly. Given the complexities involved that are deeply contextual, enhancing the FLFP via Skill India will require a much wider and more robust rural interface to allow for greater participation of rural women. A country-wide awareness campaign to encourage women to work should help.

Given the less than laudatory attention that India’s rapidly declining FLFP is receiving globally, perhaps one needs to add another line to the famous girl child campaign of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao aur Beti Ko Kaabil Banao’ to reinforce India’s commitment to enhancing FLFP significantly.

Varsha Pillai is programme manager, policy engagement and communication, Public Affairs Centre. Views are personal

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