Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP) and its Significance in Economic Growth of India: An Overview

During the last 25–30 years, India is experiencing rapid economic growth with minimal ups and downs. The country has also attained structural changes, increased the higher level of education attainment, declining trend of fertility rate and rapid urbanization. However, there has been 23 per cent of decline in the female labour force participation rate. This paper explores with few questions using state-level employment data spanning the last twenty five years, 1983–84 to 2009–10. Several cross-country and within-country studies suggest female labour force participation tends to decline initially with economic development, plateaus at a certain stage of development before rising again. The results of the study also suggest that growth by itself is not sufficient to increase women's economic activity, but the dynamics of growth matter. These findings are especially important to help design policies to improve women's labour force participation rate so that India can take complete advantage of its demographic dividend.