Only 18 percent young women in paid work against 79 percent men: Report

Only 18 per cent of young women in India aged 2029 are in paid employment compared to nearly 79 per cent of young men despite achieving near gender parity in higher education A new white paper by the Centre for Finance amp Economics Research CFER at Great Lakes Institute of Management reveals that fewer than half of young adults are employed with womens low participation acting as the primary driver of interstate variationThe study titled Young Adults at Work in India Intense Work for Some Insufficient Jobs for Many draws on data from Indias nationwide Time Use Survey TUS 2024The report reveals that in several large states fewer than one in ten young women are employed Female employment participation is particularly low in Bihar at 69 per cent Uttar Pradesh at 98 per cent Uttarakhand at 112 per cent and Jammu amp Kashmir at 122 per cent While higher participation is observed in Telangana at 313 per cent and Chhattisgarh at 265 per cent even in these states less than one in three young women is employedIndia cannot speak of a demographic dividend if half its young women are unable to participate in paid work Industry has a responsibility to look beyond hiring and examine the structural constraints housing mobility safety that determine whether women can even enter the workforce says Gangapriya Chakraverti India Site Head amp Managing Director Ford Motor CompanyThe Great Lakes White Paper finds that the formalinformal divide affects women far more severely than men Young mens daily work hours change by only 28 minutes between formal and informal enterprisesFor young women work hours collapse from 6 hours 50 minutes in formal enterprises to 4 hours 53 minutes in informal ones However in Delhi Tamil Nadu and Telangana the gap between mens and womens formalenterprise work hours falls below 30 minutesProfessor Debasish Sanyal Director Great Lakes Institute of Management states When young women get access to formal jobs in states with more job opportunities their work intensity matches mens almost exactly The policy implication is clear the binding constraint is not supply it is the ecosystem of housing transport safety and institutional support that determines whether women can participateThe study also documents an invisible burden where young women in paid work face a total work time of 9 hours 31 minutes once unpaid care is included exceeding mens total by over 90 minutesVidya Mahambare Union Bank Chair Professor of Economics and Chairperson CFER notes India has nearly 200 million young adults aged 2029 who will remain in the workingage group for at least three decades Our findings show that barely half are in paid work and among those who are there is a disturbing dual reality excessive hours for some and insufficient work for many with young women who are employed facing dual burden of work said one of the authors of the papersTo address these gaps the white paper recommends four interconnected interventionsFirst removing binding constraints to womens employment by reducing housing transport and safety barriers and expanding institutional housing such as working womens hostelsSecond accelerating formalisation through simplified regulatory compliance portable social protection and rural formalenterprise infrastructureThird addressing overwork and spatial mismatch by colocating affordable housing with employment centres and investing in public transport with safe lastmile connectivityFourth tackling underemployment through expanded market linkages structured pathways from informal to formal work via skill certification and the integration of timeuse metrics into national employment monitoringThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever