Why India's rising female labour participation is a distress signal
- Female participation fell from 31.2% in 2011-12 to 23.3% in 2017-18, then jumped to 41.7% in 2023-24.
- The rise is led almost entirely by rural women; urban participation has barely moved.
- Most of the new work is unpaid family labour or own-account work, not salaried jobs — the share in regular salaried work has fallen.
- EPW research links it to financial distress, with real earnings stagnating or falling since 2017–18 and household spending declining.
Source: thewire.in
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