India women

Why are millions of Indian women dropping out of work?

  •  Nearly 20 million Indian women quit work between 2004-05 to 2011-12
  • The labour force participation rate for women of working age declined from 42% in 1993-94 to 31% in 2011-12
  • Some 53% of the total drop - the largest chunk - happened among women aged 15-24 and living in villages
  • In rural areas, the female labour force participation rate dropped from 49% to 37.8% between 2004-05 and 2009-10
  • While more than 24 million men joined the work force between 2004-5 to 2009-10, the number of women in the the work force dropped by 21.7 million