Indian labour market has seen a big shift in terms of widening gender gap. A Mint report says that India’s female labour force participation rate fell nearly seven percentage points to 22.5% between 2004-05 and 2011-12. India ranks 10th from the bottom among countries ranked according to their female labour force participation rate, World Bank data show.

The report mentioned possible three key factors that could be driving women out of the rural labour force: First, there seems to be an income effect that has allowed many women to quit demanding jobs. Secondly, there could be an education effect that is putting increasing numbers of rural women out of farms and into schools and colleges, which is reflected in the growing rural enrolment rates. Finally, there seems to be a dearth of attractive non-farm work opportunities for rural women as most non-farm jobs have been generated in the construction sector.

Read the complete report here