Women and Work in India: State-level Analysis

The World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report’ that provides the current state of progresses on gender parity indicates that the inequality in women’s work and economic participation remains a crucial challenge for removing the gender gaps. According to the International Labour Organization’s report, ‘Women at Work, 2016’, the chances for women to participate in the labour market remain lower worldwide. The lower participation rates of women generally manifest itself in fewer employment opportunities and therefore higher risks of unemployment, pay gaps, poor-quality jobs, occupational or sectoral segregation, and engagements in unpaid household or care work. The female workforce participation in India has been declining in spite of specific steps taken by the government on incentives, reservations, self-employment and skill training programmes. It is therefore extremely crucial to deal with the question as to why the progress on providing decent work opportunities for women has been so low in India, and what needs to be done towards securing better employment prospects for women in the country. It is also important to note that the adoption of new technologies may transform the working lives of women across various states of India differently by displacing some from their existing jobs and making others move to high-skill jobs. This part of the Social Change Indicators series utilises information provided in the Periodic Labour Force Survey Survey to provide a snapshot of where working women stand today in the major states of India. ¹ We process data to report labour force participation (rural and urban), unemployment, status of employment and distribution of employment across economic sectors. Our analyses refer to data on 31 major states and union territories as well as all-India. ²

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 2.

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 3.

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 4.

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 5.

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 1.

Percentage Distribution of Female Workers (Rural) in Usual Status by Industry of Work

States	Agriculture, Mining and Quarrying	Manufacturing	Electricity, Water, etc.	Construction	Trade, Hotel and Restaurant	Transport, Storage and Communications	Other Services
Andhra Pradesh	77.4	6.1	0	5.4	5.4	0.3	5.4
Arunachal Pradesh	75.5	0.1	0	0	6.8	0	17.6
Assam	51.6	5.4	0	2.4	3.6	0.7	36.3
Bihar	61.5	1.3	0	2.5	9.2	0	25.6
Chandigarh	19.2	9.5	0	0	18.4	0	52.9
Chhattisgarh	85.7	2.2	0.3	4.5	3.9	0	3.5
Delhi	0	21.3	0	1.2	2.4	0	75.1
Goa	28.8	7.8	0	0.8	16.3	0	46.3
Gujarat	81.4	6.3	0	3.1	1.7	0	7.5
Haryana	66.1	9.5	0	3.1	2.2	1.2	17.9
Himachal Pradesh	86.3	1.6	0.2	3.5	1.5	0	7.1
Jammu & Kashmir	85.7	4.1	0	0	0.7	0	9.5
Jharkhand	75.8	8.7	0	6.3	2	0	7.2
Karnataka	76.8	8.4	0	1.1	4.4	0.8	8.4
Kerala	26.1	13.1	0.1	13	10.9	2.3	34.6
Madhya Pradesh	84.2	3.2	0	6.3	2.2	0	4.3
Maharashtra	88.5	2.9	0	0.7	2.1	0.4	5.4
Manipur	26.4	29.1	0	1.7	18.8	0.9	23.2
Meghalaya	73.6	0.6	0	5	7.2	0	13.6
Mizoram	65.9	5	0	1.1	15.8	0	12.2
Nagaland	46.6	3.8	0	0	13.9	0	35.7
Odisha	62.3	10.4	0	13.5	3.4	0	10.3
Punjab	40.6	17.4	0	5.7	3.9	0.7	31.8
Rajasthan	83	4.2	0.1	7.2	1.4	0.2	4
Sikkim	61	0.9	1.3	1.7	11.1	0	24
Tamil Nadu	51.2	13	0	19.7	6.7	0.3	9.1
Telangana	70.6	18.3	0	3.8	2.2	0	5.1
Tripura	37.2	4	0	17.9	8.2	0.1	32.7
Uttarakhand	81.3	1.6	0	0.7	1.8	0.3	14.4
Uttar Pradesh	75.1	9.7	0	2	5.6	0.3	7.2
West Bengal	52.5	24.9	0	1.8	5.6	0	15.2
All-India	73.4	8.1	0	5.3	4	0.3	8.9

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

Note: The broad industry divisions that comprised different industry sections from the National Industrial Classification, 2008, are as follows: Agriculture, mining and quarrying = Sections A and B; Manufacturing = Section C; Electricity, Water, etc. = Sections D and E; Construction = Section F; Trade, Hotel and Restaurant = Sections G and I; Transport, storage and communications = Sections H and J; Other services = Sections K to U.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 2.

Percentage Distribution of Female Workers (Urban) in Usual Status by Industry of Work

States	Agriculture, Mining and Quarrying	Manufacturing	Electricity, Water, etc.	Construction	Trade, Hotel and Restaurant	Transport, Storage and Communications	Other Services
Andhra Pradesh	8.2	26.3	0.7	3.9	22.2	0.9	37.9
Arunachal Pradesh	3	0	4.7	1.8	23.1	5.2	62.3
Assam	9	13.8	0	0.7	9.6	2	65.0
Bihar	6.0	14.7	0.0	4.6	10.2	0.3	64.2
Chandigarh	0.1	15.1	2.2	0.0	10.4	0.3	71.9
Chhattisgarh	21.8	13.2	1.0	11.1	14.7	0.9	37.2
Delhi	0	9.9	0.5	1.7	15.9	7.1	65.0
Goa	6.2	15.3	0.0	0.9	9.7	4.1	63.8
Gujarat	7.7	36.8	0.5	2.6	9.1	2.7	40.7
Haryana	8.8	31.1	0.5	3.1	8.6	1.8	46.1
Himachal Pradesh	27.3	16.8	1.0	3.1	9.6	0.3	41.9
Jammu & Kashmir	22.4	19.5	0.7	2.2	3.0	1.7	50.5
Jharkhand	6.6	15.9	2.0	19.3	5.0	2.4	48.9
Karnataka	11.1	28.1	0.4	3.1	14.9	5.2	37.2
Kerala	9.6	14.6	0.8	9.4	10.1	3.4	52.1
Madhya Pradesh	11.0	28.9	1.3	6.3	10.9	1.3	40.5
Maharashtra	7.8	18.3	0.3	2.8	14.2	5.2	51.4
Manipur	6.3	29.5	0.0	0.6	20.3	0.4	42.9
Meghalaya	9.5	3.1	0.0	0.5	17.3	2.0	67.6
Mizoram	13.7	4.0	0.7	0.4	31.5	02	49.6
Nagaland	7.4	5.6	1.7	0	19.3	1.5	64.5
Odisha	5.9	18.1	0	13.1	8.8	0.9	53.2
Punjab	5.4	20.7	2.3	0.9	11.5	2.2	57.1
Rajasthan	22	19.9	2.9	7.3	6.8	0	41.2
Sikkim	0	18.1	0	0	41.8	0.4	39.7
Tamil Nadu	12.2	28.2	0.3	3.6	16.7	5.7	33.3
Telangana	10.7	24.2	1	4.7	12.1	7.6	39.9
Tripura	3.2	13.7	0	9.6	5.7	0	67.8
Uttarakhand	8.2	12.1	0	0.7	8.9	0.4	69.7
Uttar Pradesh	9.3	27.9	0.4	3.3	10.9	0.6	47.7
West Bengal	3.1	39.4	0.2	2	7.6	1.3	46.4
All-India	9.2	25.2	0.6	4.1	13	3.3	44.4

Source: Derived from Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017–2018.

Note: The broad industry divisions that comprised different industry sections from the National Industrial Classification, 2008, are as follows: Agriculture, mining and quarrying = Sections A and B; Manufacturing = Section C; Electricity, water, etc. = Sections D and E; Construction = Section F; Trade, hotel and restaurant = Sections G and I; Transport, storage and communications = Sections H and J; Other services = Sections K to U.