Thursday, June 2, 2022

India's missing women

Without women in the workforce, trillions in global growth are at risk.
At Pardada Pardadi, more than 300 students have graduated and gone on to lucrative jobs in I.T. or the government. Photographer: Ruhani Kaur 

As the world climbs out of the pandemic, economists warn of a troubling data point: Failing to restore jobs for women — who have been less likely than men to return to the workforce — could shave trillions of dollars off global economic growth.

The forecast is particularly bleak in developing countries like India, where female labor force participation fell so steeply that it's now in the same league as war-torn Yemen.

This week's episode of The Pay Check podcast explores how the coronavirus accelerated an already worrying trend in the world's second-most populous country. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of working women in India dropped from 26% to 19%. As infections surged, a bad situation turned dire: Economists in Mumbai estimate that female employment plummeted to 9% by 2022.

It's disastrous news for India's economy — but also its young women and girls. 

Read The Big Take and listen to The Pay Check podcast episode. 

From today's story

$6 trillion
How much India's economy stands to gain if the country closes the employment gap between men and women by 2050

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