Q1. Women’s rising participation in India’s workforce has coincided with stagnant or falling real earnings and a surge in unpaid roles. Analyse this paradox.
Analytical Focus for Answer (AFfA):
- Use PLFS trend: FLFPR vs real earnings.
- Explain role of self-employment and “helpers” in household enterprises.
- Link rural surge, sectoral composition shift, disguised employment.
- Brief policy fixes: formalisation, productive non-farm jobs, income security.
Model Answer
Introduction
India’s female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) has witnessed a remarkable rise—from 23.3% in 2017–18 to 41.7% in 2023–24 (PLFS 2023–24). This rise, however, conceals a paradox. Instead of reflecting greater economic empowerment, it exposes deep structural distortions where more women are counted as workers but fewer receive fair or stable incomes.
Body
- Rise without remuneration: FLFPR increase has been largely driven by rural women entering self-employment and unpaid household enterprises rather than wage employment.
- Unpaid work surge: Share of women “helpers in household enterprises” almost doubled between 2017–18 and 2023–24; nearly one in three working women today is unpaid.
- Decline in real earnings: Across employment categories—self-employed, regular, and casual—real earnings declined during the same period, except for marginal gains among casual workers.
- Sectoral stagnation: Contrary to typical economic development trends, rural women’s share in agriculture grew from 71.1% to 76.9%, while industrial and service employment fell.
- Disguised employment: Many women shifted from “domestic duties” to “self-employed” or “helper” categories—an apparent formal inclusion masking underemployment.
- Structural reasons: Low asset ownership, social norms restricting mobility, and lack of child-care or skilling opportunities trap women in informal low-paying sectors.
Conclusion
The paradox of higher participation with lower pay underscores the persistence of India’s informal gendered labour structure. True empowerment requires formal job creation, skill upgrading, and valuation of unpaid work within national accounts. Unless participation translates into productivity and pay, the FLFPR rise will remain a statistical illusion rather than a marker of gender equality.
Q2. The feminisation of agriculture in India reflects participation without empowerment. Critically examine with reference to labour composition, asset ownership and value-chain positioning.
Analytical Focus for Answer (AFfA):
- Present trends: share of women in agri workforce; unpaid family work surge.
- Diagnose structural causes: male out-migration, land rights gap, pay gap.
- Show value-chain issue: concentration in low-value tasks; weak market access.
- Connect macro outcome: agriculture’s GVA share and household incomes.
- Way forward: land titling/joint titles, credit, FPOs/collectives, quality jobs, market linkages.
Model Answer
Introduction
Agriculture remains the largest employer of women in India. Over 42% of the agricultural workforce is now female, reflecting a sharp 135% rise in women’s participation over the past decade. Yet, this feminisation has not led to empowerment; instead, it has deepened structural inequities and reinforced invisible, unpaid roles.
Body
- Demographic shift: Male out-migration towards non-farm jobs has pushed women into agriculture, increasing their labour share but not their bargaining power.
- Unpaid and unrecognised: Number of unpaid female family workers rose from 23.6 million to 59.1 million in just eight years; half of women in agriculture remain unpaid.
- Asset disparity: Women own only about 13–14% of land holdings, undermining their claim to institutional credit, crop insurance, or formal recognition as farmers.
- Pay and productivity gap: Women earn 20–30% less than men for similar work and remain concentrated in low-value segments such as sowing, weeding, and post-harvest labour.
- Macroeconomic effect: Agriculture’s contribution to national GVA declined from 15.3% in 2017–18 to 14.4% in 2024–25, showing limited productivity gains from increased female labour.
- Emerging opportunities: Value-chain diversification—organic produce, millets, spices, and processed food—offers higher-margin potential where women already hold experience.
- Digital and institutional models: Initiatives like Digital Sakhi (L&T Finance), Odisha’s Swayam Sampurna FPOs, and AI4Bharat’s BHASHINI platform show pathways for women to access training, digital literacy, and market linkages.
Conclusion
Feminisation without empowerment reflects policy and structural gaps rather than social progress. True gender transformation in agriculture demands recognition of women as independent farmers, secure land titles, targeted credit, and inclusion in agri-value chains and export markets. Only by linking women’s labour to value creation can India achieve both equality and productivity in its farm sector.
Q3. Can emerging trade opportunities and digital public infrastructure convert women’s work in agriculture into entrepreneurial incomes? Discuss with risks.
Analytical Focus for Answer (AFfA):
- Opportunity: export-led demand, premium niches, formal market access.
- Mechanisms: platforms, multilingual access, producer collectives, branding/standards.
- Constraints: digital literacy, devices, credit collateral, exclusion risks.
- Safeguards: targeted skilling, gender budgeting, equity in value-add segments, monitoring outcomes.
Model Answer
Introduction
India’s new phase of agricultural globalisation—characterised by digital integration, free trade agreements, and value-chain expansion—has created fresh spaces for women’s economic agency. Yet, the challenge lies in ensuring these opportunities benefit women equitably and do not replicate existing gender divides.
Body
- Trade as an enabler: India–UK FTA could boost agricultural exports by 20%, providing premium markets for rice, spices, and dairy—sectors with a large female workforce.
- Value-chain transition: Scope for women to move from unpaid farm labour to remunerated roles in processing, packaging, and branding of organic and GI-tagged products.
- Digital infrastructure leverage: Platforms like e-NAM, mobile advisories, and precision agriculture tools connect women to markets, knowledge, and credit systems.
- Inclusion through innovation: AI-led multilingual tools such as BHASHINI and Jugalbandi provide language-based access to government services; women-led FPOs in Odisha and Rajasthan use these platforms for direct marketing.
- Risks and constraints: Low digital literacy, poor internet access, cost of devices, and entrenched male control over assets risk excluding women from digital gains.
- Institutional reform needs: Integrating digital inclusion with land and labour reforms; gender-sensitive credit and export policies; collective entrepreneurship through FPOs and cooperatives.
Conclusion
Trade and technology can transform women’s farm roles from subsistence to enterprise only if backed by structural support. Empowerment will depend on bridging the digital divide, promoting land ownership, and embedding gender equity within agri-trade and digital policy. Without inclusion safeguards, digitisation and trade may widen, not close, gender gaps in rural India.