AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT ECONOMIC SITUATION OF WOMEN IN INDIA

Declining work participation rate of women in the labour market in India is leading towards increasing incidences of unemployment, increasing informalization, dependence on the primary sector.  These are at stake in the building blocks towards empowerment and equality of women. Women in India fare worse than men; the rate of transition of labour, particularly women, out of agriculture to industry and services, is still far too slow to work out. Women face multiple barriers in terms of occupational segregation, low wages, unequal access to assets and other productive inputs, lack of decision making power and education. In addition they face care work, household chores and at times poverty. Opening up of the economy and rapid economic growth have escalated some of the existing structural barriers faced by women. New challenges in the form of dismantling of traditional support structures, displacement due to migration, obsolescence of traditional skill sets have cropped up. There is an urgent need to increase decent work and productive employment with more opportunities for women in different sectors.