{"id":43813,"date":"2025-10-27T04:40:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=43813"},"modified":"2025-10-29T12:33:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:03:42","slug":"developing-national-policy-to-increase-female-workforce-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/developing-national-policy-to-increase-female-workforce-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing National Policy to Increase Female Workforce Participation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>What is a Care Economy?<\/li>\n<li>Key Issues Related to the Care Economy in India<\/li>\n<li>Key Features of the National Policy to Increase Female Workforce Participation<\/li>\n<li>Key Barriers to Women\u2019s Workforce Inclusion, Government Initiatives and Way Ahead<\/li>\n<li>Conclusion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian government is set to unveil <strong>a comprehensive national policy <\/strong>aimed at increasing female labour force participation, focusing on creating an enabling environment through a robust care economy framework.<\/li>\n<li>Key ministries are collaborating to address the challenges women face in balancing caregiving responsibilities with employment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>What is a Care Economy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It refers to the <strong>sector of economic activity that encompasses the provision of care and support services<\/strong>, particularly those related to <strong>health, education, childcare, eldercare, etc<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It encompasses paid and unpaid care work crucial for <strong>human survival, welfare, and labor force participation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It helps to address material, emotional, and developmental requirements but is sometimes unrecognised or undervalued, resulting in a &#8220;<strong>hidden care economy<\/strong>&#8220;.<\/li>\n<li>This dilemma prompted the <strong>Beijing Platform for Action in 1995<\/strong>, which pushed for identifying and appreciating women&#8217;s contributions in caregiving, domestic work, and volunteerism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Key Issues Related to the Care Economy in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"image image_resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiram-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com\/Inverted_Care_Pyramid_in_India_fbc8584bf4.webp\" alt=\"Inverted Care Pyramid in India.webp\" \/><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>High percentage outside workforce:<\/strong> Over half of India\u2019s women (53%) remain outside the labour force, largely due to unpaid caregiving duties, in stark contrast to only 1.1% of men.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unpaid domestic and household work:<\/strong> According to India\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/periodic-labour-force-survey-plfs\/\" target=\"_blank\">Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)<\/a> for 2023-24, around 36.7% of females and 19.4% of the workforce are involved in unpaid household work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gender disparities in domestic work:<\/strong> The National Statistical Office (NSO) Time Use Survey 2019 shows that 81% of Indian females aged 6 and above spend over five hours daily on unpaid domestic activities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Caregiving time differences:<\/strong> Among those 6 years and older, 26.2% of females spend over two hours daily on caregiving versus 12.4% of males, indicating the disproportionate share borne by women.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Key Features of the National Policy to Increase Female Workforce Participation:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"image image_resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiram-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com\/Reimagining_Care_Economy_in_India_99d3afbcf0.webp\" alt=\"Reimagining Care Economy in India.webp\" \/><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Focus on the care economy:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The proposed policy emphasises the development of a care economy.<\/li>\n<li>A care economy includes:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Direct care:<\/strong> Activities such as feeding children and caregiving.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Indirect care: <\/strong>Tasks like cooking, cleaning, and other domestic services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Broader services: <\/strong>Healthcare, education, and personal assistance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Caregiving infrastructure: <\/strong>Developing support structures to reduce the caregiving burden on women and encourage labour market participation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Core skilling package: <\/strong>A specialised training program for caregivers, particularly for childcare, is under consideration.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Childcare for informal sector workers:<\/strong> Childcare facilities, especially for workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), will be a critical component.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Key Barriers to Women\u2019s Workforce Inclusion, Government Initiatives and Way Ahead:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Barriers:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to a ILO report, <strong>low educational attainment, limited job opportunities, and inadequate infrastructure<\/strong> are critical factors keeping women out of the workforce.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cultural norms<\/strong> around caregiving heavily restrict women\u2019s labour market access, especially in<strong> rural areas,<\/strong> reinforcing existing gender inequalities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Existing initiatives &#8211; Palna scheme:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Women and Child Development operates the \u2018<strong>Palna<\/strong>\u2019 scheme, which provides <strong>Anganwadi-cum-cr\u00e8che facilities<\/strong> for children aged 6 months to 6 years.<\/li>\n<li>Key highlights of the scheme include:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Services offered:<\/strong> Nutritional support, health monitoring, immunisation, cognitive development, and education.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current status: <\/strong>As of now, 1,000 Anganwadi creches are operational.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Way ahead:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>To address the high percentage of women outside India\u2019s workforce due to care responsibilities, <strong>substantial investments in the care economy<\/strong> &#8211; especially in early childhood care and education (<strong>ECCE<\/strong>) &#8211; are essential.<\/li>\n<li>Such initiatives cannot only <strong>foster gender equality<\/strong> but also <strong>unlock economic potential <\/strong>by enabling more women to enter and thrive in the workforce.<\/li>\n<li>Nations like <strong>Belarus, Bulgaria, and Sweden<\/strong> maintain lower proportions of women outside the workforce (less than 10%) by investing in ECCE, roughly 1% of their GDP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion: <\/strong>The national policy document intends to close the gender gap in the workforce by tackling systemic impediments and improving support mechanisms, thereby empowering women and increasing their economic participation.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q.1. How is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) increasing female labour force participation in India?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>MGNREGS is a gender-neutral Scheme which promotes participation of women by providing wage parity with men, provision of a separate schedule of rates of wages for women, facilities for cr\u00e8che, work-side sheds for children, and child care services.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q.2. What was the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Beijing Declaration was a resolution adopted by the UN at the end of the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995. The resolution adopted to promulgate a set of principles concerning the equality of men and women.<\/p>\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/centre-working-on-national-policy-paper-on-female-labour-force-participation\/article68934963.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Centre working on national policy paper on female labour force participation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Indian government is set to unveil a comprehensive national policy aimed at increasing female labour force participation, focusing on creating an enabling environment through a robust care economy framework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}