Choice constraint and the gender dynamics of labour markets in West Bengal

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This research project addresses the first overarching research question in the call specification: the factors which shape pathways into and out of poverty, how people experience these factors and the role of policy in creating sustained routes out of poverty. It is premised on the recognition that well-functioning labour markets are a key institutional channel through which the sustainable reduction of poverty can be achieved. They are also significant from a gender perspective. There is a substantial body of evidence to suggest that gender equality in labour market opportunities has a positive impact on survival, wellbeing and human capital of family members. And where these opportunities relate to regular and reasonably well paid work, they enhance women's agency and bargaining power within family and community. This research project is motivated by the following puzzle: The Indian economy has experienced extremely strong rates of economic growth in recent years. This has been accompanied by declining rates of fertility and rising levels of education, including female education. These are changes that have been associated with an increase in women's labour force participation rates in much of the world. Yet women's labour force participation has not only remained low in the Indian context, but has declined in recent years. Moreover, women continued to be concentrated in a more limited range of labour market activities than men. The objective of our research is gain a better understanding of the barriers to women's labour force participation in the Indian context through a detailed case study of the gender dynamics of labour markets in the state of West Bengal. We propose to use an interdisciplinary framework which draws on economic and sociological explanations of labour market behaviour and the careful combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to identify these barriers and what can be done to overcome them. A number of policy case studies will be documented to provide more specific examples of measures that can help to overcome barriers that particularly affect poorer women. The selection of West Bengal as our case study reflects a number of considerations. First of all, it typifies the trends that make up the puzzle at the national level. West Bengal has one of the highest rates of growth in India, significant declines in fertility and rising levels of female education but continues to report extremely low rates of female labour force participation which have declined further in recent years. It therefore provides a very appropriate context in which to explore the barriers to women's labour force participation and what might help to overcome them. Secondly, we propose to take advantage of a similar study on the gender dynamics of labour markets on-going in neighbouring Bangladesh to design the West Bengal study as part of a larger comparative project. The two Bengals are not only geographically contiguous, they were once part of the same political entity, they have a shared ethno-linguistic identity and similar cultural norms, including norms regarding women's labour force participation. And while their policy regimes have diverged considerably since their partition in 1947, both have experienced strong growth rates in recent year and declining rates of poverty. Yet while female labour force participation rates in West Bengal have been low and declining, those in Bangladesh have risen steadily since the 1970s to levels now higher than those in West Bengal. While the West Bengal study will constitute a stand-along research project into the barriers to women's labour force participation, we believe that the opportunity to carry out a comparison with Bangladesh will allow us to better understand the interaction between cultural norms and economic motivations in shaping women's labour market behaviour in contexts with similar norms of gender propriety but diverging policy regimes.