Religion and female labor force participation in India

Sujata Kar

Review of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 29, issue 2, 917-948

Abstract: This paper primarily aims to identify the impact of religion on currently working women in India by considering the National Family Health Survey 2015–2016 data. It also incorporates several socioeconomics variables as controls. The models are estimated with aggregate as well as disaggregated urban–rural as well as zonal data. The results suggest that compared to the Hindus, Christian and Buddhist women have higher odds of labor force participation and Muslim and Sikh women have lower odds. Extensive analysis of the data indicates that economic well‐being among the Sikhs and the status of being married among the Muslims could be the primary factors responsible for their lower workforce participation. Additionally, lower age, lower education, better economic well‐being, the status of being married, large family size, having only one child, male household heads, and younger children are associated with lower workforce participation. Furthermore, education seems to be more accessible to women from urban areas and wealthier sections. Based on these observations, the study recommends devising policies for greater provisions for higher education in rural areas and among the poorer sections of society. Also, imparting awareness and developing an understanding of the importance of female labor force participation is crucial to improve women's labor force participation in India.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13154

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:29:y:2025:i:2:p:917-948

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1363-6669

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Development Economics is currently edited by E. Kwan Choi

More articles in Review of Development Economics from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().