The Recent Drop in Female Labour-Force Participation in Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

The J&K economy will not reach its full potential unless the government and employers remove barriers to women's full labour-force participation in the labour market. Failure to address structural labor market issues, employment policy does more than limit women's career opportunities and aspirations for a better life. In Jammu and Kashmir context overall labor force participation is reported to be considerably low and has been on consistent decline. It has decreased by 7% from 62.09% in 1999-00 to 55.68% in 2017-18. The overall decline in labor force has been mainly attributed to the sharp decline in female labor force participation rate, which has registered almost 8% decline from 39.86% to 31.61% during 1999-00 to 2017-18. This decline is puzzling some and against the gender development goals like inclusive development, women empowerment etc. Women's participation barriers also act as brakes on the national economy, stifling growth. By adopting gender friendly policies and removing barriers to women's participation we can narrow down gender gap in participation and achieve stronger economic growth