Women participation in workforce increased from pre-Covid level: Centre

Despite concerns that many working women have dropped out of the labour force in the last two years due to Covid pandemic, the government has said that, on the contrary, the participation of women in the workforce has increased from pre-Covid levels.

In a written reply to a query posed by MP Kirit Solanki, the women and child development ministry has said that as of July 2021, 32.1 per cent of the entire workforce, or around 99.71 lakh women are employed, as per data from Labour Bureau. This is an increase from the 90 lakh women reported as working in the workforce in March 2020, prior to the lockdown.

The data from the labour ministry’s Quarterly Employment Survey is for the second quarter of 2021, from nine sectors, which was released in January this year. In the first quarter of 2021, the ministry reported 29.3 per cent women in the labour force.

Female participation drastically fell in the second quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic, touching a low of 16.1 per cent, as per the ministry of statistics. In the quarter preceding that, between April and June 2020, it was at 15.5 per cent.

The ministry said that the government is providing training to women through a network of women industrial training institutes, national vocational training Institutes and regional vocational training institutes. It also said that the government is implementing the National Career Service Project under which it provides a variety of employment related services like job search, career counselling, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses, etc. on a common digital platform.

“In order to promote women empowerment, NCS provides various opportunities and features specifically focused for women candidates to encourage skilling and employment amongst females,” the government said.

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