70% of Urban Graduate Women are not in employment

A new Study (Annual PLFS report 2018-19) by the Government of India has found that the 70% of Urban Graduate Women are not in Employment.

Some of the States are quite a shocker

In Delhi, 76% of the Graduate Women are not in employment

In Karnataka, 70% of the Graduate Women are not in employment

On the other hand, Some Big States have done quite well

In Kerala, 46% of Graduate Women are in Employment, In Andhra it is 44%, Chhattisgarh is at 37% and Tamil Nadu at 39%

There are many reasons why Graduate Women aren’t in unemployment. Chief amongst them is lack of appropriate opportunities, biases amongst recruiters, security issues, cultural factors at home and child rearing responsibilities.

If one includes all education levels, just 20% of Urban women are in employment. 45% of Post Graduate women are in employment (MBAs for example), amongst those with Diplomas/ Certificate course 43% are in employment. It is amongst those who have attended just Middle School that employment is the lowest. These are women who have studied between 5th standard and 12th standard in schools.

Some States are really struggling to find employment for less educated women in their State probably because of excess supply of Male Labour – Uttar Pradesh (Just 10% of Urban women are in employment), Bihar (Just 7% of Urban women are in employment)

India trails China in Female labour force participation by a wide margin and with so many women not in employment, it will be quite difficult for India to grow and become a superpower economy anytime soon.

Source: Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) (in per cent) according to usual status (ps+ss) for person of age 15 years and above