Analysis Of Female Work Participation In Midnapore Town Of West Bengal: A Case Study

Abstract

rbanization has strong linkages with economic growth. It is expected that urbanisation would create more opportunities
for productive employment and also social change which pushed women to pursue education and participate in
remunerative activities. However, the sluggishness of social change can offset the opportunities for productive
employment. In this light, the present study simply tries to analyse the work participation in Midnapore town emphasising
on female workforce participation and identifying the gap between male and female participation. Impact of urbanisation
on female labour force participation in the study area has also been analysed. The analysis has been made mainly on
available secondary data gathered from census of India during 2011 and some primary data collected through primary
survey. Some statistical methods and diagrams have been used to represent the data and analyse them. Regression
techniques have been used to assess the impact of urbanisation on FLPR rate. We find urbanisation to have a significant
effect on female labour force participation with varying impact in the study area. More than 40 percent of women are still
working as marginal workers. Moreover, within the main worker category, a huge proportion of female is engaged in
informal sectors. The present study attempts to analyse the pattern of female participation in various economic activities
in Midnapur urban area and how the process of urbanisation has affected the FWP. The findings suggest a pressing need
for women specific policies in the study area in order to reduce the gap.