• UGI USER
  • Oct 06, 2023
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Rural Women

Unpaid domestic, agricultural labor by rural women has been ignored for too long

Relevance

  • GS Paper 1 Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
  • Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.
  • Tags: #employment #LFPR #womenempowerment #currentaffairs #upsc.

Why in the News?

  • As we approach the International Day of Rural Women, it is disheartening to acknowledge that India grapples with one of the lowest female labor force participation rates (LFPR) globally, trailing behind even Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • The Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) data paints a stark picture, revealing that in 2021-22, India’s LFPR stands at a mere 35.6 percent for women aged 15-59, with rural areas witnessing an even lower rate of 26.5 percent.
  • Surprisingly, the years 2017 to 2021 saw an increase in women’s LFPR, particularly in rural regions, attributed to their growing engagement in agriculture and allied activities.

Rural Women’s LFPR and Employment Trends

Rising Self-Employment

  • A closer look at education and age group-wise classification of LFPR exposes a noteworthy trend. The recent surge in rural women’s LFPR can be entirely attributed to a surge in self-employment.
  • Approximately three-fourths of rural working women are now involved in agriculture and allied activities. Shockingly, more than half of these women work as unpaid family helpers within household businesses during the year 2021-22.

Domestic Chores

  • Alarmingly, married women seem more prone to assume the roles of unpaid family helpers or engage in domestic chores, perpetuating gender disparities.

Gender Wage Gap

  • Rural women employed as regular and casual wage workers face a stark gender wage gap compared to their urban counterparts.
  • Furthermore, self-employed women earn less than half of men’s earnings, highlighting a pronounced gender earning gap across categories.

Landownership Disparity in Agriculture

Ownership Imbalance

  • Despite their critical role in agriculture, the agriculture census of 2015-16 reported that only 7 percent of operational landholdings belonged to women. This disparity underscores the gender gap in landownership within the agricultural sector.

Concentration in Marginal Holdings

  • A significant 57 percent of operational landholdings managed by women fall under the marginal and small holding categories.
  • Owning land is pivotal as it facilitates access to various agricultural schemes, compensation, and relief measures in the event of crop loss, thereby sustaining their livelihoods.
  • Regrettably, this land-ownership gap has further worsened for the self-employed between 2017 and 2021.

Unpaid and Essential Contributions of Rural Women

  • Invisible Labor Force: A substantial proportion of women engage in unpaid yet essential activities, often overlooked as part of the labor force in India.
  • While this proportion declined from 60 percent in 2017-18 to 46 percent in 2021-22 due to reduced engagement in domestic chores, one-third of rural women continue to perform unpaid domestic work.
  • The Time Use Survey of 2019 reveals that, on average, rural women dedicate over five hours each day to unpaid domestic services and more than two hours to unpaid caregiving, far surpassing men.

Government Agricultural Schemes

  • Changing Landscape: There has been a significant shift in the Union government’s allocation of funds to agriculture and allied sectors, with cash-based schemes now constituting a significant portion of the budget. An individual-centric approach has taken precedence.
  • PM-KISAN and PMFBY: Notable schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) have seen their expenditures rise dramatically from 13 percent in 2015-16 to a staggering 73 percent in 2023-24. These schemes have been prioritized in Union budgets.
  • Gender Disparities in Beneficiaries: Nevertheless, gender-wise beneficiary data reveals a glaring gap, with only 15 percent of women farmers benefitting from PMFBY in 2023, and a mere 25 percent receiving financial aid under PM-KISAN. Given that land ownership is a major criterion for accessing these schemes, numerous women farmers find themselves excluded.

The unpaid, unaccounted, and underpaid contributions of rural women are instrumental not just in agriculture but also in the broader rural economy. Recognizing and valuing their labor, and ensuring the inclusion of landless and marginal women farmers in government agricultural schemes, is imperative to combat gender inequality in rural India. It is high time we acknowledge and rectify the oversight that has persisted for far too long.

 

Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)

· LFPR is the percentage of the population in working age-groups either employed or actively seeking employment but currently unemployed.

· Calculated by dividing the labor force by the total working-age population (aged 15 to 64), providing an estimate of the active workforce in an economy.

· It is further analyzed by age groups and presented as a percentage of each age group.

Improving Employment Trends

· Labor markets have rebounded to pre-Covid levels in both urban and rural areas, with a drop in unemployment rates from 5.8% in 2018-19 to 4.2% in 2020-21.

· The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2020-21 (July-June) shows positive trends in Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and unemployment rates (UR) for both males and females in both rural and urban areas compared to 2019-20 and 2018-19.

· Male LFPR increased to 57.5% in 2020-21 from 55.6% in 2018-19. Female LFPR rose to 25.1% in 2020-21 from 18.6% in 2018-19, with a notable increase in rural female LFPR from 19.7% in 2018-19 to 27.7% in 2020-21.

· Broadly categorized employment status reveals a rise in self-employment and a decline in regular wage/salaried workers in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20, seen in both rural and urban areas. Casual labor declined slightly, primarily in rural areas.

· Industry-wise, the Economic Survey shows a marginal increase in the share of workers engaged in agriculture, from 45.6% in 2019-20 to 46.5% in 2020-21. The share in manufacturing decreased slightly from 11.2% to 10.9%, while construction increased from 11.6% to 12.1%, and trade, hotel & restaurants declined from 13.2% to 12.2% over the same period.

Sources: Indian Express

Mains Question

“Discuss the role of rural women in India’s agriculture sector, highlighting the challenges they face and the policy measures needed to empower them. Examine the impact of gender wage gaps on rural women’s economic participation and the strategies required to bridge this gap in the context of Indian agriculture.”