
Indian women's labour participation decades away from matching G20 peers, economists say: Reuters poll
Overall job creation is falling short of the needs of India's mostly young, rapidly-growing working-age population. Women, who make up half of that pool, are largely absent from the workforce and most women with jobs are not formally employed on payrolls.
The official female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) rose to 31.7% from 27.8% in the latest 2023-24 Periodic Labour Force Survey, opens new tab (PLFS), but is well short of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2047 development goal, opens new tab to raise it to 70%, putting it more in line with advanced economies.
India is at the bottom of the G20 table, behind Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and lower than even neighbouring Bangladesh and Bhutan, according to World Bank data. The G20 average is around 50%.
A majority, 80%, of top independent economists and policy experts surveyed over the past month, 32 of 40, said it would take at least 20 to 30 years for India to reach a rate comparable to other G20 economies, including 18 who said it would take more than three decades. The remaining eight said it would take 10-20 years.
"The kind of work women are involved in is not really what we call good jobs or good quality work. It's really just bottom of the ladder, survivalist kind. It's good they're participating but it's not the kind of transformational participation you might imagine," said Ashwini Deshpande, a professor and head of the department of economics at Ashoka University.
"The job crisis is much more acute than in countries with similar levels of GDP...And when jobs are scarce, men get the first priority everywhere," added Deshpande.
Only 15.9% of working women, opens new tab are in regular wage or salaried jobs, the kind that come with contracts, steady pay or benefits.
While officials have noted the recent rise in female labour force participation as a sign of progress, the latest PLFS survey showed 73.5% of rural working women and over 40% with jobs in urban areas are self-employed.
Asked what they make of the official data over 70% of economists surveyed, 32 of 43, said it masked the real picture.
"Ideally...you should see household earnings also go up when women are participating and that has not happened, which is a very big marker that this is potentially not the best kind of employment. It's potentially distress-driven," said Rosa Abraham, assistant professor at Azim Premji University.
Asked if the recent rise in FLFPR signals real progress, she said: "That level of shift is still nowhere near what you would expect at this level of economic development that we are in and there's still a long way to go."
Over 70% of experts said the Indian government's overall unemployment data was inaccurate and masked the severity of joblessness and underemployment.
Even when jobs are available, safety concerns and unpaid care work prevent many women from applying. They spend nearly five hours daily on household duties, over three times as much as men, according to the 2025 Time Use Survey, opens new tab.
"For women the productive and reproductive age coincide. Hence childcare and lack of suitable facilities serve as a constraint," said Sangeeta Shroff, former professor at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. "To address such issues, it will require aggressive policy intervention which will require considerable time and resources."
Asked what the government should prioritise, respondents highlighted expanding childcare, safer workplaces and stronger anti-discrimination measures.
Bina Agarwal, professor of development economics and environment at the University of Manchester, said young women need safe hostels in cities and small towns, safe transport to work and enforcement of workplace sexual harassment laws.
"These are among many ideas feminist economists in India have been advocating for years. Is anyone listening?" she asked.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Modi joins Maldives independence day celebrations, signals easing tensions amid China rivalry
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday participated Saturday in the 60th Independence Day celebrations of the Maldives, concluding a two-day visit to the island nation. During the trip, Modi also announced financial assistance and formally launched talks on a proposed free trade agreement. The two-day visit was seen as crucial to India's ambition to control the seas and shipping routes of the Indian Ocean in a race with its regional rival China. It signaled a thaw in diplomatic tensions that followed the election of pro-China Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu in 2023. Modi joined a distinguished gathering at Republic Square in the capital, Malé, where a military parade and cultural performances marked the anniversary of the Maldives gaining independence from British rule in 1965. On Friday, following talks with Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, Modi announced a credit line of $565 million to support development projects in the Maldives. The visit coincided with the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations in 1965. It also saw the start of talks on a free trade agreement. The two leaders oversaw the exchange of signed agreements to cooperate in sectors such as fisheries, health, tourism and digital development. Modi also handed over dozens of heavy vehicles donated by India to strengthen the Maldives' defense forces. The Maldives — an archipelago nation strategically located in the Indian Ocean — is a focal point in the growing geopolitical rivalry between India and China. Tensions grew when Muizzu, who favored closer ties with China, was elected in 2023 after defeating the India-friendly incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Leading up to the election, Muizzu had promised to expel Indian soldiers deployed in the Maldives to help with humanitarian assistance. Last year New Delhi replaced dozens of its soldiers in the Maldives with civilian experts. Measures by Modi to promote tourism in India's Lakshadweep archipelago, off the southwestern coast of the Indian mainland, also sparked anger from Maldivians, who saw it as a move to lure Indian tourists away from their country. Indian celebrities then called for a tourism boycott of the Maldives. Tensions escalated last year when President Muizzu visited China before India, a move widely interpreted in New Delhi as a diplomatic snub. On his return, Muizzu outlined plans to reduce the Maldives' reliance on India for medical services, pharmaceuticals, and essential imports such as food staples. Relations started to improve after Muizzu attended Modi's swearing-in ceremony for a third five-year term last year. Muizzu has since toned down his anti-Indian rhetoric, and official contacts with New Delhi have intensified amid growing concern about the Maldives' economy. During a visit by Muizzu to India last October, India pledged financial support to the Maldives, which has been struggling with debt. This included $100 million in short-term government loans and agreeing to a $400 million currency swap to help stabilize the Maldivian economy. India has long been a key development partner for the Maldives. However, the island nation has also deepened ties with China, joining its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 to build infrastructure and expand trade — part of Beijing's broader effort to increase its global influence.


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
India wrestles with how census can count tribe that shuns contact with outside world
As India gears up for its next national census in 2027, officials in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean are confronting the thorny question of how to count Indigenous people who strongly resist contact with the outside world. At the heart of the dilemma are the Sentinelese, a hunter-gatherer tribe living on the thickly forested North Sentinel Island, who have a long history of repelling intruders using bows and arrows. Now, a government census notice is stirring debate about whether attempts should be made to count them at all. 'Trying to do a census of the Sentinelese is pointless,' says Manish Chandi, a former member of the research advisory board of the Andaman and Nicobar Tribal Research and Training Institute. 'It's far more important to protect the island's reef, marine resources and the tribe's isolation than to come up with a number,' he told the Hindustan Times. The last time India conducted a census was in 2011. Since then, officials have enforced a 5km exclusion zone around North Sentinel Island. This 'eyes-on, hands-off' policy is aimed at shielding the tribe from diseases to which they have no immunity and protecting their autonomy. Earlier censuses weren't invasive. Officials would travel by boat, circling the shores of North Sentinel Island, close enough to glimpse the inhabitants but far enough to avoid being struck by arrows. RF Lowe, who supervised the census in 1921, wrote that with the Sentinelese 'being uniformly hostile, no attempt was made at direct enumeration'. The 2001 census listed 39 individuals seen on the beach. The 2011 census put the number at 15. Both figures are seen as 'guesstimates' based on offshore observations. London-based Survival International, which advocates for Indigenous peoples' rights, says the population is estimated to be anywhere from 50 to 150. Believed to have migrated from Africa more than 50,000 years ago, the Sentinelese hunt, fish and forage using bows, arrows, spears and stone tools. Some anthropologists believe them to be the most isolated tribe in the world. When the British established a penal colony in the Andamans in 1858, the islands were home to an estimated 5,000 people from various tribes. Within decades, many had died, either killed or wiped out by measles, influenza, syphilis and other diseases brought in by settlers No Indian official has set foot on the 59 sq km island since 2014, not even to retrieve the bodies of four intruders killed by the Sentinelese, including US missionary John Allen Chau, 26. He landed on the island illegally in 2018 and, according to the fishers who ferried him, was shot dead with arrows. Despite the tribe's hostility to outsiders, North Sentinel Island still attracts adventurers. In March, a 24-year-old Arizona YouTuber, Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, was arrested after filming himself sailing to the island and bringing a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as offerings, and blowing a whistle to draw attention to himself. 'The government used to land coconut-laden boats on the beach until the late 1990s,' says M Sasikumar, joint director of the Anthropological Survey of India. 'But that was stopped because of the risk of disease. A virus could wipe them out.' With the 2027 census looming, officials have been considering using drones and satellite imagery to estimate the Sentinelese population, but experts warn this could do more harm than good. 'It's hard to imagine that such populations could be accurately assessed using drones, as both the Sentinelese and Shompen live in dense rainforest,' says Jonathan Mazower of Survival International. Using drones 'would just feel intrusive', he adds. Flying drones could also cause panic among the islanders, experts warn. After the 2004 tsunami, the Sentinelese famously fired arrows at helicopters sent to check on their welfare. The Sentinelese are not the only people who defy easy enumeration. Others, such as the Shompen of Great Nicobar and the Jarawa of Middle and South Andaman, have varying levels of contact with outsiders. Some accept medical help or provisions; others live near settled areas and are increasingly exposed to tourism and development. 'The Shompen live very deep inside the forests on the west coast,' says Barnabas Manju, chair of the Little and Great Nicobar Tribal Council. The 2011 census counted 229 Shompen – 141 males and 88 females – but that figure too is seen as unreliable. Access to the Shompen is logistically difficult. Roads were damaged by the tsunami, which means that reaching the Shompen requires days of trekking while many avoid outsiders.


Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Indian firm says it shipped non-military explosives to Russia
NEW DELHI, July 26 (Reuters) - An Indian firm that shipped $1.4 million worth of an explosive compound with military uses to Russia in December said on Saturday it complies with Indian rules and the substance it had shipped was for civilian industrial purposes. Reuters reported on July 24 that Ideal Detonators Private Limited shipped the compound, known as HMX or octogen, to two Russian explosives manufacturers despite U.S. threats to impose sanctions on any entity supporting Russia's Ukraine war effort. One of the Russian companies listed in Indian customs data as receiving the compound is the explosives manufacturer Promsintez. An official at Ukraine's SBU security service has said the Russian company has ties to the military and that Ukraine launched a drone attack in April against a Promsintez-owned factory. Promsintez did not respond to a request for comment. Ideal Detonators said in an emailed response to Reuters that the material it shipped was not military grade. "The shipment ... is for industrial activity and it's a civil explosive," the company said. The U.S. government has identified HMX as "critical for Russia's war effort" and has warned financial institutions against facilitating any sales of the substance to Moscow. The U.S. Treasury Department has the authority to sanction those who sell HMX and similar substances to Russia, sanctions lawyers have said. HMX is widely used in missile and torpedo warheads, rocket motors, exploding projectiles and plastic-bonded explosives for advanced military systems, according to the Pentagon's Defense Technical Information Center and related defense research programs. The compound also has some limited civilian applications in mining and other industrial activities.