COVID Effect: Female Labour Participation Rate Falls To 16.1%

 Female Labour Participation Rate Falls: The impact of pandemic can be gauged by the fact that the female labour participation rate in India fell to 16.1% during the July-September 2020 quarter, according to a government report. In fact, it is the lowest among the major economies. This highlights the issue of widening job crisis.

The Ministry of Statistics released a report which mentions that the percentage of women in the labour force had fallen to a record low of 15.5% during the April-June 2020 quarter. This was the time when India imposed strict lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 virus.

In general also, India ranks abysmally low when it comes to female labour force participation rates in the world. There are less than a third of women, above 15 or older, who are employed or looking for opportunities to be employed. Among those employed, most of them do low-skilled work such as farm and factory labour and domestic help. These sectors have been severely hit by the pandemic.

However, one can hope that the rate of participation will go up now as state government has eased pandemic curbs. Also, most economic activities have resumed in India. This will lead to the positive revival of jobs.

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, India's July unemployment rate fell to 6.95% from the June figure of 9.17%. In fact, the economy is unlikely to attain its pre-covid side before March 2020.

Another COVID-19 report by policy advisory firm Dalberg claims that Indian women in pandemic faced unemployment, unpaid labour and lesser food intake than men.

The report that covered the period between March and October last year mentioned that resources and accessibility plunged for women from low-income households.

Approximately 15,000 women were surveyed across ten states. One in ten women cut back on or went without food while 16 percent could not access sanitary napkins, necessities for health and hygiene. Where 27 percent women said they didn’t get adequate rest from work and chores as loads increased, only 18 percent men out of the 2,300 surveyed could say the same. Read more about the report here.