The Indian Labour Market: A Gendered Perspective

Gender inequalities in education and employment hinder women empowerment and impede the process of growth and development of a country. The rapid economic growth accompanied by massive expansion of the education system should lead to an increase in women employment. But the conspicuous absence of women in the Indian labour market is an outcome of the deep routed gender bias that continues to dent the process of women empowerment and gender neutrality at workplaces. There is a wave of policy discourse on declining participation of women in the labour force and rising unemployment. The paper, through an economic analysis of historic data, attempts to examine the gender perspective of the Indian labour market. It is found that the decline is sharp for rural women. Moreover, women employment in rural areas is largely agriculture-driven which makes them vulnerable to urban employment opportunities.