Decline in Rural Female Labour Force Participation in India: A Relook into the Causes

As an economy transforms from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, a decline in participation of female labour force is observed. This is attributed to the shift from family-based production to large-scale production in industrial units. The womenfolk being mostly illiterate or with low levels of education face shortage of work in the home turf and have inhibitions in working as manual labour in the non-agricultural sector. But with an increase in family income and improvement in the education level of females, more and more females start entering the labour force, especially into non-manual or serviceoriented jobs.