Asia | Women in the workforce

The mystery of India’s female labour-force participation rate

A good news story? Maybe

Women labourers sort potatoes at a wholesale vegetable market in Jalandhar, India
Counting carbsPhotograph: Getty Images
|MUMBAI

IN 2018 THE statistics office of the government of India released the first “periodic labour force survey”, designed to provide quarterly and annual snapshots of employment in the country. That year the proportion of women aged 15 and above who were in work was a miserable 23.3%, far below the global average of 53%. By contrast, the labour-force participation rate (LFPR) among Indian men was 75.8%.

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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Distress or opportunity?”

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