Gender Discrimination : Much of Women's Economic Activity Not Reflected in Statistics

Although most women in India work and contribute to the economy in one form or another, much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics. Women plow fields and harvest crops while working on farms; women weave and make handicrafts while working in household industries; women sell food and gather wood while working in the informal sector. Additionally, women are traditionally responsible for the daily household chores (e.g., cooking, fetching water, and looking after children). Although the cultural restrictions women face are changing, women are still not as free as men to participate in the formal economy.

In the past, cultural restrictions were the primary impediments to female employment; now, however, the shortage of jobs throughout the country contributes to low female employment as well. The 1991 Indian census divides workers into two categories: “main” and “marginal” workers. Main workers include people who worked for 6 months or more during the year, while marginal workers include those who worked for a shorter period. Detailed data on marginal workers have not been tabulated from the 1991 census, but many of these workers are agricultural laborers. Unpaid farm and family enterprise workers are supposed to be included in either the main worker or marginal worker category, as appropriate (Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RGCC), 1993). Women account for a small proportion of the formal Indian labor force, even though the number of female main workers has grown faster in recent years than that of their male counterparts.

The 1991 census shows that the number of male main workers increased 23 percent since the 1981 census while the number of female main workers increased 40 percent. However, women still accounted for only 23 percent (64.3 million) of the total. The reported labor force participation of women is very low. Fewer than one-quarter (22 percent) of women of all ages were engaged in work either as a main or a marginal worker in 1991, compared with just over half of men. Rural women were more likely than urban women to be counted in the census as working, 27 percent versus 9 percent, respectively (RGCC, 1993).

Since Indian culture hinders women’s access to jobs in stores, factories, and the public sector, the informal sector is particularly important for women. More women may be involved in undocumented or “disguised” wage work than in the formal labor force. There are estimates that over 90 percent of working women are involved in the informal sector and not included in official statistics (The World Bank, 1991). The informal sector includes jobs such as domestic servant, small trader, artisan, or field laborer on a family farm. Most of these jobs are unskilled and low paying and do not provide benefits to the worker. Although such jobs are supposed to be recorded in the census, undercounting is likely because the boundaries between these activities and other forms of household work done by women are often clouded (Dube and Palriwala, 1990). Thus, the actual labor force participation rate for women is likely to be higher than the calculated value.