What is keeping women from going to work : understanding violence and female labour supply : a state-level analysis

"This paper presents a state-level analysis of how the lack of safety--increasing rate of crime--acts as a barrier to work for women and girls, and the extent to which crimes against women and girls can be associated with the sharp decline in female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) from 31.2 per cent (ESU 2011-12) to 23.3 per cent (PLFS 2017-18). The paper focuses on factors that prevent women from stepping out to work painting a perception of lack of safety. These include rape, kidnapping and abduction, sexual harassment and molestation. At the all-India level, there is a low but negative correlation between FLFPR and overall crime rate, and a moderately negative correlation between FLFPR and kidnapping and abduction. These results are indicative of the general lack of safety of women and can be considered to be a strong factor that discourages women from participating in the workforce. The report finds unexpected results for crimes of rape, molestation and sexual harassment, possibly because of the gross underreporting of these crimes against what is common knowledge from anecdotal evidence. The paper also explores two key gender-oriented factors as potential reasons that can lead to high crime rates against women and girls: these are consumption of alcohol among males using data from the NFHS and male unemployment rate from the PLFS. The paper concludes with recommendations to adopt a 'SAFETY' framework to prevent crimes against women and girls in society"--Abstract. "The paper, What is keeping women from going to work: Understanding violence and female labour supply is an output of the research vertical of the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE), an initiative of LEAD at Krea University"--Page 3. Includes statistical tables. Includes bibliographical references (pages 41-43). System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (UNICEF, viewed March 27, 2023).