Agri, self-employment drive women participation in rural workforce: FinMin

Higher presence in agriculture and the rise in entrepreneurship among women in rural India are driving their participation in the workforce in recent years, said a finance ministry report titled ‘The Indian Economy: A Review’ released on Monday.

The report authored by a group of economists in the finance ministry, led by chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran, pointed out that the female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) has been rising for at least six years now, to 37 per cent in 2022-23 from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18.

“While urban FLFPR has also been rising, the rural FLFPR has seen a sharp growth. The rise in rural female FLFPR has been accompanied by a rise in the share of self-employment and agriculture among working women, points which deserve greater scrutiny,” the report notes. 

In rural areas, the FLFPR has increased to 41.5 per cent in 2022-23 from 24.6 per cent in 2017-18, whereas in urban areas, it has gone up to 25.4 per cent from 20.4 per cent, during the same period.  

The report explains that the rise in rural female employment has been contributed by both the own account worker/employer category (share rising from 19 per cent in 2017-18 to 27.9 per cent in 2022- 23) and the unpaid helper category (from 38.7 per cent to 43.1 per cent). This indicates a rising contribution of females to rural production. 

“This is plausibly a culmination of many factors, including continuous high growth in agriculture output and freeing up women’s time due to substantial expansion of access to basic amenities such as piped drinking water, clean cooking fuel and sanitation. This is also reflected in the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data showing a significant shift in females away from domestic duties,” the report notes.

Besides, the report also notes that male workforce is tilting away from agriculture due to men taking up rising opportunities in the non-agriculture sector, while women at home move to farm to fill in for the men.

The rise in the share of agriculture in the rural female workforce has gone up to 76.2 per cent in 2022-23 from 73.2 per cent in 2017-18. The share of agriculture in the rural male workforce has declined to 49.1 per cent from 55 per cent during the same period. 

The report also notes that there has been a structural shift among rural female workforce. It is marked by a rising proportion of skilled agriculture labour (up from 48 per cent in 2018-19 to 59.4 per cent in 2022-23). It also shows a decline in the share of elementary agriculture labourers using considerable physical effort, from 23.4 per cent to 16.6 per cent over the same period. 

“Among skilled agricultural female workers, market-oriented workers drive the expansion, possibly filling up for the men leaving agriculture and contributing to family income. Thus, the feminisation of agriculture also points to a much-needed structural shift within agriculture, where excess (male) labour moves out and the remaining (female) is utilised efficiently. Thus, female participation in rural India is productive and remunerative,” the report notes.