Waning Participation of Women in Uttar Pradesh’s Labour Market: Some Proximate Determinants.

Abstract

One of the most significant features of the Indian labour market has been falling labour force participation rates especially for women whose participation had always been hovering around half of the corresponding male figures. In the present context plethora of studies have focused on the declining income growth in agriculture sector and stagnation of employment with declining FLFPR. The paper looks at the trends in employment of women in Uttar Pradesh from 1971 to 2011 using data from different census rounds. Given the controversial results from NSSO’s employment and unemployment surveys we rely on Census outcomes. In the context of the prevailing debate this paper seeks to answer the two major questions. i.e. which are the major economic activities/ sector in which women are employed, and what have been the trends in levels of employment of women in Uttar Pradesh? And what are the proximate factors that can provide explanation for low and declining levels of women’s employment in Uttar Pradesh?