Economic Survey calls for a bunch of incentives for female workers

The Economic Survey 2020-21 has called for a bunch of incentives for female workers including affordable and quality child care facilities, paid paternal leave and family-friendly work environment.

Further, the Survey has recognised the emerging potential of gig workers in India and said the labour reforms have brought in the labour laws in tune with the changing labour market trends.

The incentives proposed for women are aimed at drawing more and more females to join the labour force as their contribution to the overall workforce continues to be very low compared to the men.


According to the Survey, the pan-India labour force participation rate of females in the productive age (15-59 years) was 26.5% in 2018-19 as compared to 80.3% for males. While 54.7% of urban women were employed in the regular wage and salaried category, about 59.6% of rural females were not only self-employed but 37.9% among them were helpers in household enterprises.

“The low female LFPR is attributed to high participation of women (15 years & above) in domestic duties that is 55.7% in rural areas and 59.1% in urban areas in 2018-19,” the Survey noted. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Survey in Parliament on Friday.

“In order to incentivise more women to join into the labour force, investment in institutional support to affordable and quality child care facilities, paid paternal leave, family-friendly work environment, and support for elderly care needs to be made,” it said.

“There is also a need to promote non-discriminatory practices at the workplace like pay and career progression, improve work incentives, including other medical and social security benefits for female workers,” it added .

On Gig workers
According to the Survey, India has emerged as one of the largest countries for flexi staffing in the world with gig workers becoming important during the lockdown when online retail businesses saw significant growth.

Besides, during the lockdown period employers preferred 'Work from home' of their employees, cutting down on staff strength and engaging freelancers or outsourcing tasks to reduce overhead costs as well as to hire skilled services.

“As a result, the gig economy has been popular amongst the workers in India as it allows flexibility in employer-employee relationship to both service seeker and service provider,” it said.

Impact of Covid
According to the Survey, the COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of urban casual workers.

“A significant proportion of them are supposed to be migrants who were impacted by the lockdown,:” it said, adding that about 63.19 lakh migrant workers travelled through Shramik Special trains from May-August 2020.

As per the periodic labour force survey between January and March 2020, urban casual workers account for 11.2% of urban workforce (All-India) as per Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), January-March, 2020.

On Labour Reforms
As per the Survey, the years 2019 and 2020 are landmark years in the history of labour reforms when the country saw the nearly 29 central labour laws being amalgamated, rationalized and simplified into four labour codes. These include the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020.

“This has brought these laws in tune with the changing labour market trends and at the same time accommodated the minimum wage requirement and welfare needs of the unorganized sector workers, including the self-employed and migrant workers, within the framework of legislation,” the Survey said.