Women need a better deal

The literature, say the authors, has focused on supply-side constraints that prevent women from entering the labour markets

New research by Prof Ashwini Deshpande and Jitendra Singh of Ashoka University suggests that India’s low and falling fem­ale labour participation rate is not just because they are spending more time on education or that their families are now better off such that they do not have to work. They find that women are keen to work and come to the labour markets in search of work repeatedly even after quitting employment. More than half of the women who were in the labour force at some time made at least two transitions in or out of the labour market over