Source | economictimes.indiatimes.com | Yogima Seth Sharma
India’s already low female workforce participation has been skewed further by the pandemic with female workforce still in high double-digit unemployment rates and female labour force participation rates being far off the pre-pandemic levels.
Experts say the falling number of jobs across sectors and greater occupancy of females with household chores during the pandemic has meant that recovery in female workforce participation is much slower compared to male workforce.
Data from the periodic labour force survey by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation shows the female unemployment rate in urban India at 13.1% for October-December quarter of 2020, which is higher than the national average of 10.3%, while women labour force participation rate stood at 20.6% compared to national average of 47.3%.