There has been a decline in the participation of girls in the country’s labour force and they have suffered disproportionately from the financial shocks triggered by demonetisation, GST implementation and the lockdown, Mahesh Vyas, MD and CEO, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) , has stated. The female labour participation price has come down from 16.4% in May 2016 to 12.7% in January 17, post-demonentisation and it has additional declined to to 9.36% in May soon after the lockdown, he stated.
Speaking on Friday at the Women@Work conference organised by the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune International Centre, India Development Foundation and the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, Vyas stated throughout 2018 and 2019, when there had been no financial shocks, the female participation in the labour force had stabilised at 11%, which indicated that financial shocks had a direct influence on female labour participation. The CMIE Consumer Pyramids Household Survey for the September- December 2020 period will show if there is additional harm and this report will be out in January 2021, he stated.
Women in the age group of 20 to 24 had began to participate in the labour force, but all these gains have been lost mainly because of the lockdown and it will take a couple of years to reverse back to the 2018 level and even more time to get back to 2016, Vyas stated.
Women are initial to face job losses and the final to recover the lost jobs. Men, nonetheless, recover from job losses swiftly, Vyas stated. It is also more stressful for the urban girls, he added. Women suffered 52.4% of the job losses by November 2020 taking a disproportionate hit of the lockdown shock, he stated.
Ravinder Kaur, professor of sociology and social anthropology, IIT, Delhi, stated there is puzzle of the girls missing from the labour force, specifically in the 24-44 age group leaving the labour force. A huge proportion of married girls go missing mainly because of the domestic and care responsibilities, she stated. This could also be the earnings impact exactly where girls withdraw from work as household earnings rises or the status impact exactly where girls not working contributes to larger status of family members, she stated.
This is the marriage and motherhood penalty girls spend and withdraw from the labour force soon after marriage and as soon as they have kids, Kaur stated. The Covid-19 pandemic is going to be a setback for girls and they will shed out on education as nicely as jobs, she stated.