Most research on the fall in female labour participation is based on an analysis of the available NSSO and Labour Bureau data. As a result, most of the reasons cited for the fall in female labour participation rate are those that can be found in these and associated official data. But, the reasons could well be beyond what these data sets can tell us about this problem.
The reasons identified in the available research are principally, higher household incomes and higher enrolment of women in higher education. Other reasons include increase in farm mechanisation and reduction in household animal farming which included substantial women's labour participation.
While a lot of research has been done, somehow collectively they do not seem to convince us entirely of the reasons for the fall in female labour participation. If women were drawn into higher education in the recent past, then they should be hitting the labour markets by now in greater force. If higher household income reduced the need for women to contribute to household income, then as incomes grew even higher, they should have come back to the labour markets as most the world's experience tells us.
Why do we not see that? How long will we have to wait before women return to the labour force and become equal contributors to growth. Why was the impact of demonetisation on the labour markets skewed very heavily against women's participation? Past research does not provide us any clue to such questions.
Is lack of safety at the workplace for women a factor that impacts the participation of women in the labour markets? Can we flip this question and use the rising instances of violence against women as a barometer of the falling willingness of women to work outside their homes? Is it reasonable to assume that whenever a young woman shares her harrowing experience at the workplace, she automatically discourages several others from joining the labour force?
In general, it is worth a research's salt to test if safety of women outside their homes plays a role in women's participation in the labour force?
Why are migrants mostly men? A female migrant is most likely related to a male migrant. A lonely migrant into a big city is rare and confined mostly to the better educated and better connected women -- women who expect the police, the media and social media to listen to them.
It is still uncommon to find a lonely woman in a tea shop. Women still suffer tremendous lack of freedom -- freedom to walk over into a tea shop for a quick shot of our favourite beverage. Isn't this lack of freedom at the root of women being absent from the workforce?
But, the available research does not show this. This is because hitherto, research has been largely limited to the available data. This is akin to looking for the lost key under the street lamp -- where there is light. Researchers need to move the lamp and expand the horizon of our search for the reasons for the fall in female labour participation.
Recent events give us pointers on what we need to do to understand the problem better. Is it just income and education, or there are other reasons that stop women from going to work? It would be useful to construct large country-wide surveys that directly ask women what holds them from joining the workforce or, what drives them out of the labour markets. And, what do they expect, in the least or, in under ideal conditions, from a workplace.
Men and employers are equally important participants in this grim and unsettling tale of missing women in the workplace.
We need to ask men how do they perceive women in the workplace as colleagues, as employees, as wage earners for their families, as individuals with equal freedoms. How do men perceive women in a public place -- that lonely woman in the tea shop. Or, women travellers in public transport facilities. Reserved compartments for women on our trains is a reflection of our backwardness.
We need to ask employers on how do they perceive hiring women. We need to know if the extended maternity leave facility for women has hurt their employability in the eyes of the employers.
Academicians need to expand the scope of enquiry beyond the official data. Government economists need to recognise the problem of the steep fall in female labour participation.
The author is managing director and CEO, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy P Ltd
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