Improving India’s women labour force participation rate

The passage of the Women's Reservation Bill on September 20 was a landmark step. The Bill reserves one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women. The move is expected to make Indian political leadership more diverse and inclusive while empowering women lawmakers to articulate and act upon the concerns and issues of women residing in diverse geographies and cultures.

The 33% quota for women will leapfrog India into one of 64 countries around the world that have reserved seats for women in their parliaments. Studies have shown that women in leadership positions positively impact policy delivery, programmes and financing that improve the lives of women and their families, communities and their nations.

Let's consider the current scenario in terms of how women fare in the job market and how this is linked to their education level. Estimates based on PRICE's countrywide ICE 360° surveys reveal interesting insights:

• Women account for 47% of the total population (711 million of 1,439 million, as of April 2023).
• Women comprise 40% of the country's graduate population and about 30% of the total post-graduates.
• The proportion of girl students declines as one goes up the education ladder. While less than a twelfth of men are illiterate, nearly a quarter of women belong to this group. As a result, roughly three-fourths of all illiterates are women.
• More than half of all women (55%) are non-earning homemakers. At an individual level, this implies women manage personal expenditures by juggling household expenses.

We gained insights into how women do this when we asked 18+ women: 'Do you have some money to spend each month on yourself?' Two-thirds of the women said, 'yes'.

When asked about the money