Youth Employment in India: The Female Perspective

In any country, youth population is the strength of the future. India is enjoying the ‘demographic dividend’ but cannot enjoy all its benefits due to faulty or inadequate manpower planning. Female work participation rate is low in India and that is also reflected in the youth segment. This paper traces the structural changes of the economy, the occupational shift from agriculture to service, and the bulging of the informal sector in the absence of any conscious employment policy, especially for the youth. Then it takes up the issue of youth employment in general and female employment in particular. Taking up the oft-discussed reasons of low female work participation, it passes on to empirical evidence from Census 2011 data. It clearly shows the bulge of female youth in agricultural and other sectors where skill is not essential at the entry point. Skill-oriented occupations especially in the urban sector take females in the age group 24–29. The pandemic and other problems in the Indian economy have led to a difficult situation where the proportion of young females in NEET has increased enormously. This calls for conscious policy decision for women, especially the younger lot.