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Domestic Trends

often not optimally utilised. Therefore, it may be more
Relationship between Female Labour beneficial to provide new mother employees with The TOP
Force Participation Rate (%) and 'Child-care' vouchers after their maternity leave, which they
Education Level for 2023-24 can use according to their needs, such as enrolling their
60.0 50.4 50.3 51.1 child in a creche near their home or hiring a nanny, to
50.0 38.4 better suit their current circumstances. Trouble:
40.0
LFPR 30.0 25.0 2. Move from contractual services to regular employment in
20.0 cases where majority of the service providers are women.
10.0 17.9 For example, in the Anganwadi system, a move towards Understanding
0.0 Not making such jobs part of formal employment will improve
Literate &
Higher
Literate upto Primary Secondary Secondary Graduate Post-Graduate the employment quality and also reduce the dis-incentives
& Above
associated with irregular / informal employment.
Level of Education 3. Under the newly announced Employment Linked Incentive the Spillover
(ELI) Scheme, allocate a portion of the budget for
Source: PLFS Report 2023-24 supporting hiring of women.

Furthermore, caregiving responsibilities frequently impede Implementing the above policy recommendations is essential, Effects of Food
women's participation in the workforce. Therefore, it is crucial but not sufficient, for improving the female LFPR.
to address socio-economic barriers, such as providing safe . Additionally, awareness programs and policies aimed at
living spaces and transportation options for women workers. eliminating the negative bias towards female employment are
To this end, we suggest the following: needed. Building on the success of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Inflation
Padhao’ program, its scope can be expanded to emphasize the
1. It has been observed that the mandatory requirement of importance of allowing women to enter the labour force
providing creche facilities for new mothers by employers is

Recommendations for generating employment & livelihoods at scale 1

Key
To further improve the pace of overall job creation in the economy,  The gig economy presents scalable employment Takeaways
CII has suggested the following recommendations: opportunities across skill levels. A dedicated National
 A National Employment Policy should be formulated to unify Policy for the gig Economy should be introduced to ensure
fragmented efforts across different central ministries and states, worker protection, facilitate skilling, and establish a Food inflation is higher and volatile component of High price transmission among vegetables
offering a coherent framework that addresses both labour demand centralised digital registry. Such a policy would encourage headline inflation compared to core inflation, with its indicates that disruption in one market can ripple
and supply. This should be complemented by the development of a formalisation, innovation, and labour mobility while contribution more than doubling in last few years. across others. Hence, price control measures
Single Integrated Labour Information Portal to consolidate improving job security. should extend beyond one commodity.
employment and skilling data - benefiting job seekers, employers,  To promote balanced regional development, India should Vegetables are major contributors to food
and policymakers alike. launch a targeted programme for economic growth and inflation, particularly Tomato, Onion, Potato (TOP) Targeted policy measures such as building
 The four Labour Codes, passed in 2019 and 2020, promise to employment generation in the 100 most underdeveloped due to seasonality, climate dependency and supply strategic buffers, enhancing storage and
processing infrastructure, and investing in
chain inefficiencies.
streamline labour regulations and improve the ease of doing districts. In addition, launching a program which provides
business. To ensure speedy and effective implementation, the internship opportunity at rural government offices for Lack of price interconnectedness between food climate-resilient infrastructure, are crucial for
central government must engage in active dialogue and college educated youth would address both livelihood and core inflation suggests that tackling food mitigating food inflationary pressures.
coordination with state governments. opportunity as well as skill building of youth. inflation requires supply-side interventions rather
 Job creation at scale can be achieved with targeted policy support  Effective, evidence-based policymaking hinges on robust than reliance on monetary policy measures.
for employment-intensive sectors such as textiles, tourism, employment data. A dedicated Task Force on Employment
agro-processing, real estate, and healthcare. Additionally, to boost Data should be established to enhance data quality,
growth of MSMEs - the second-largest employment generator coverage, and frequency, reduce time lags, and include
after agriculture - a comprehensive strategy is required which real-time insights on both the supply and demand of skills. Food inflation has emerged as one of the most pressing Expenditure Survey (HCES_ 2023-24, the average monthly per
covers all relevant aspects such as competitiveness, finance, macroeconomic challenges in recent times, exerting a capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) of bottom 20 per
technology, labour, market access, etc. persistent upward pressure on overall inflation. Unlike core cent fractile class on food in rural India stood at Rs 1118.6,
inflation which is driven by demand-side factors, food inflation accounting for 53.5 per cent share in total expenditure,
 To mitigate urban employment distress, the government should is influenced by supply-side shocks such as erratic weather whereas for urban counterparts, the comparable number
consider launching an Urban Employment Guarantee Programme, patterns, global commodity price fluctuations, and structural stands at 49.1 per cent. This suggests that low-income rural
modelled on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment inefficiencies in the agricultural supply chain that contribute to households allocate a high share of their expenditure to
Guarantee Scheme (MGNRESG). its volatility. The impact of food inflation is particularly severe food, making them more vulnerable to the effects of rising
for low-income rural households who allocate a larger part of food inflation.
their expenditure on food. As per Household Consumption
1 Drawn from CII report on ‘Policies for a Competitive India: CII Recommendations’ (April 2025)

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