One of the much talked about features of the latest available large-scale survey data for 1999-2000 to 2004-05 on employment has been the overall increase in women's workforce participation rates in both rural and urban areas. The inadequacy of official statistics in capturing the full range of women's work has always been an issue and yet their participation in the labour market has a distinct regional pattern-relatively lower workforce participation in northern states vis-à-vis states in the south and the north-east-that cannot be explained within the framework of a strict demand-supply paradigm.
URL : 20141014123732.pdf