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Investigating nexus between family composition and women’s participation in labour force or domestic activities: Recent evidences from India

Balhasan Ali, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi
Preeti Dhillon, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Sivakami Muthusamy, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India
Udaya Shankar Mishra, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum

Despite a remarkable increase in girls' educational enrolment and a significant decline in fertility over the last few decades, India witnessed a large decline in women's labour force participation. Our paper investigates the nexus between family composition and women's participation in domestic work and the labour force. Using unit-level data from the national labour survey (2011-12 & 2017-18), we find a notable increase in women's domestic work participation and an enormous fall in women's labour force participation over time. Domestic work participation of women with secondary and middle education has increased; however, it has declined among women holding higher or graduate degrees. Residing with at least one young child (under-five) in the family reduces women's chance to participate in the labour force and increases domestic activity; however, if they co-reside with either school-going age children (5-14) or elderly person (64-79), it increases their labour force participation. Further, women living in households with school-going age (5-14 years) children have higher tendency to engage in labour force rather than domestic activity. We find evidences that the presence of the elderly women, not the elderly men, encourage other adult women’s engagement in labour force participation rather their domestic participation.

Keywords: Gender, Human capital and labour markets, Family demography, Intergenerational relations

See paper.

  Presented in Session P18.