India could improve its measurement of women's participation in the workforce to meet international standards and fully recognise their contribution.
According to sources, the 28-member standing committee on economic statistics, which was established by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) in January 2020, is discussing a redesign of the questionnaire used for the Periodic Labour Force Survey.
"There is a view that the PLFS has certain measurement issues with female participation rate. This can be addressed by tweaking the questionnaire to make it more comprehensive and focussing on a reduced recall period of one week instead of a year," said one of the committee members, on the condition of anonymity.
The current set of questions on labour participation is thought to be incompatible with international standards.
According to the sources, more specific follow-up questions are needed to holistically capture economic activity because there is no obvious boundary between economic activity and domestic chores, especially in rural areas.
If the committee's recommendations are approved by the government, they will only be used to calculate statistics for the fiscal year 2022-23, as the new questionnaire will need to go through pilot testing before it can replace the previous one.
According to World Bank estimates, India has one of the world's lowest female labour force participation rates, with less than a third of women aged 15 and up working or actively looking for work. The female labour participation rate in India was expected to be 20.3 percent in 2019, down from more than 26 percent in 2005. This is significantly lower than Bangladesh's 30.5 percent and Sri Lanka's 33.7 percent.
According to the Mospi's periodic labour force survey, female labour force participation in India was 17.5 percent in 2017-18, 18.6 percent in 2018-19, and 22.8 percent in 2019-20. Female labour participation in urban India, on the other hand, had dropped to a record low of 15.5 percent in April-June 2020, the first quarter of the lockout, before improving marginally to 16.1 percent in July-September 2020 and 20.6 percent in October-December 2020.
