Well-aimed policies can enhance women’s employment

livemint.com:

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are two large neighbouring states in South India. Nearly 20 years ago, in 2004-05, around 57% of women in the prime age group of 25-to-54 years were in paid work in Tamil Nadu (TN) and Karnataka. Fast forward.

While 44% of prime-age women in TN were employed in 2022-23, the proportion was 51% in Karnataka. This data suggests that Karnataka has done better at keeping women employed. The state overtook TN in terms of per-person real state GDP during the last decade.

With its growth driven by the IT sector, one of the largest employers of educated women, it seems like Karnataka has managed to arrest women dropping out of the job market better than its neighbour. Or is that so? Dig deeper and a different story will emerge. First, a caveat.

Given small sub-samples at the state level in the Periodic Labour Force Surveys, the percentages discussed below may not be entirely representative. Yet, the comparative trends are unlikely to differ vastly. With economic prosperity, people usually move out of agriculture and into non-farm jobs.

26% of women of prime age in TN were working in either industrial or service sectors in 2022-23. In Karnataka, it was only 21%. More than 30% of Karnataka women in this age group continued to work in the primary sector, while it was only about 18% in TN.

Among women aged under 30, there is virtually no farm employment in TN (under 2%). While non-farm employment is higher in TN, joblessness among young women is also higher. A higher level of urbanization in TN has not enabled all women seeking paid work to find such jobs.