India's rising wealth has a downside: Fewer women are working

India's robust economic expansion and rising wealth have come at a cost - fewer women are now entering the labor force. That's putting at risk the nation's much-vaunted demographic dividend.

In socially conservative India, well-off families don't send their women out to work, only those that can't make ends meet from just a man's salary do so. Today, just one in five urban Indian females are in the labor force. The bigger picture is this trend will diminish the boost India's economy receives from its vast young population, Oxford Economics said in a report.  

India's outlook is impressive: the International Monetary