Since economic liberalization in theearly 1990s, India has experienced high economic growth andmade considerable progress in gender equality in areas suchas primary education. However, it fared poorly ongender-parity in labor force participation (LFP). During theperiod between 1993-94 and 2011-12, female labor forceparticipation rate (LFPR) remained consistently low ascompared to male participation. More alarming is the factthat female participation rate declined steadily during thesame period, particularly in rural areas. The low levelalong with declining trend in rural female LFP poses aserious threat of 'missing gender' in the laborforce. Although economic growth added jobs for both men andwomen in India till 2005, Indian women lost jobs in the nextseven years, while men continued to gain, thereby wideningthe gender gap. The actual figures in 2012 suggest thatapproximately 35 to 40 million women are 'missing'from the labor force, had female LFP grown at the same rateas it had between 1999 and 2005.1 This represents atroubling trend considering the potential of these women tocontribute to the country's productivity. To betterunderstand the existing situation, this report investigatesgender and female labor force dynamics by drawing mostly ondata from five rounds of the National Sample Survey, India,between 1993-94 and 2011-12. Key findings from the study aregrouped below in three sections. First section describes thedynamics of female LFP looking at its evolution in previoustwo decades. The next section presents the drivers of lowlevel of female participation and its declining trend. Thelast section proposes possible areas of action.
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