Himachal Pradesh women’s role in economic activity far above national average

Ambika Sharma

Solan, February 19

At 54.8 per cent, even as the active participation of women in economic activity in Himachal Pradesh exceeds the all-India level of 37 per cent, only 11.9 per cent women in the state are regular wage or salary earners as compared to the all-India level of 16.5 per cent for 2022-23.

But only 11.9% regular wage earners

• Only 11.9% women in Himachal regular wage earners vis-à-vis all-India level of 16.5%
• The figure is higher at 18% in Uttarakhand, 37.1% in Punjab and 30.8% in Haryana

While fewer women have wage earning jobs, fewer still are engaged as casual labour and a majority of them are engaged in self-employment activities, according to the recently released Economic Survey-2022-23.

The all-India rate of women with regular wages is 16.5 per cent. The state fares poorly vis-à-vis neighbouring states in this criterion, which stands at 18 per cent in Uttrakhand, 37.1 per cent in Punjab and 30.8 per cent in Haryana. The status has remained unchanged for the state consecutively for 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The government now intends to increase this rate by providing women more jobs by empowering them, undertaking “gender budgeting” and through job-oriented schemes as per the economic status report released by the government ahead of the Budget.

In the case of casual women labour too, the state fares poorly at 3.4 per cent than its neighbouring states and the all-India level for 2021-22. The proportion of women further decreased to 1.7 per cent in 2022-23.

According to the report on distribution of workers for 2021-22, more women in Himachal Pradesh are self-employed as “own account workers”, while women employers constitute 46 per cent and unpaid helpers in home enterprises comprise 38.7 per cent. This proportion has increased to 46.4 and 40.1 per cent, respectively, in 2022 and 2023. Most women are engaged in agriculture and allied sectors. The active participation of women in economic activity in Himachal Pradesh exceeds the all-India level of 37% with 54.8% women in the state found participating in such activity.

The worker-population ratio (WPR) for all ages for Himachal Pradesh in 2022-23 is 58.6 per cent. It is higher than the all-India WPR of 41.1 per cent and also better than neighbouring states like Uttarakhand (40.6), Punjab (39.7) and Haryana (34.1).

The WPR is an indicator used for analysing the employment situation and knowing the proportion of population actively contributing to the production of goods and services in the economy.