Published Paper Details:

Abstract: It has been known for the evidences from trends of work participation rate that the female work participation rate is declining over a long period of time. The scholars have attributed this decline to increase in family income. Therefore, the argument is that the since the family income is sufficient, the women need not work anymore. This paper tries to analyse this argument with the help of employment and unemployment data from NSSO's Quinquennial surveys. Women are not a homogenous category. Their participation in work is determined by caste, class, culture and geography. Therefore, decline in women's work participation rate can not be explained as a result of the, merely, improvement in the economic status of their household. There are also the indications of existence of economic distress among women and the indications for existence of economic distress exceeds the indications for existence of economic prosperity in poor regions of India by a huge margin. Gender norms become very complex when various factors like geography, caste, class, urbanism etc. overlap each other, increasing the complexity in the relationship between women's work participation and their economic status. For instance, the poor women are not likely to quit work if the aggregate benefits of working exceed the value of their domestic responsibilities and fulfil their working aspirations including good quality work. There are several such possibilities that are likely to emerge in diverse socio-economic and cultural settings. Therefore, there is an ample need of region specific studies to account the disappearance of women workers from labour market.