Poster session on Education and labour force (1)

Assessment of social disparity by various grades of employment provides comparative insight into the impact of affirmative policies in India. Affirmative policies in India have been implemented for almost six decades, which are expected to bring the historically backward groups representation in employment in par with the forward caste group. In this paper, we use the simple arithmetic and geometric ratios and further theil index of disparity to measure between and within group disparities among the social groups in terms of representation in various grades of employment. Further, analysis is done to measure the population inertia in terms of growth of population in employment by social groups using Stable Equivalent Ratio. Results reveal existing disparities between the social groups in terms of participation in employment further increased with the inclusion of population with higher education. Consistently, the gap between the forward caste and backward caste further widened in participation in employment . Analysis by gender also reveals between male and female disparities are significant within social group in employment. Results reveal that backward caste group of India still lag far behind compared to forward caste group in terms of representation at higher grades of employment.

This paper analyzes the impact of the educational conditions of Brazil’s Bolsa Família (BF) Program on the school dropout rates of children benefiting from the program. The main hypothesis is that a child who lives in a household that receives the benefit has a lower chance of dropping out of school. Data used are from the 2005 Impact Evaluation of the Bolsa Família Program (AIBF), collected by the Ministry of Social Development and Combating Famine (MDS), Brazil. Logistical models estimated the chances of children dropping out of school between 2004 and 2005, for three different household income thresholds, taking into account information about the household, mother, child, and BF benefit. For households with a maximum per capita income of 50 Brazilian Reais, the program was responsible for reducing the probability of dropping out by 57 percent. For households with a per capita income threshold of 100 Brazilian Reais, the official maximum value for eligibility into the BF Program in 2005, the likelihood of dropping out from school was reduced by 34 percent as a result of participating in the program. For households with a per capita income of up to 200 Brazilian Reais, the BF Program reduced the probability of dropping out by 33 percent.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about whether the number of Mexican young adults not in education, employment or training (NEETS) has increased (Székely, 2011). To understand the estimates of NEETS it is important to know what they do with their time. In this article, using the 2010 Mexican Census we measure the number of Mexican NEETS by sex and place of residence (rural or urban). In order to understand how they spend their time, we use the National Survey of Time Use (ENUT, 2009) to estimate the number of hours they spend doing housework, taking care of other people and in recreational activities. We pay special attention to gender and age differences in time use. We expect young females to spend more time than their male counterparts in domestic chores and caregiving. We compare the amount of time NEETS spend in these type of chores with the time other youngsters dedicate to the same chores. We expect NEETS to spend more time in housework and care activities. Our results have implications in two directions: First, they suggest that the definition of NEETS needs to be revised, as it includes many women who are dedicated to housework. Secondly, it shows that even when many young men are not working nor in education, current data sources do not serve to completely understand what they do with their time.

This paper attempts to measure the impact of various socio-economic variables on female labour force participation (LFP) in Kathmandu Valley- the most populous region of Nepal. Attempts have also been made to measure the rural/urban differentials and to examine how these determinants associate with female LFP. The data from the Nepal Labour Force Survey 2008/2009 is analyzed by the logistic regression model. Based on the results of chi-squared tests and theoretical models which explain female labour force participation, a number of potential variables for inclusion in the logistic regression are identified. The study shows the prevalence of gender differentials in labour force participation which is more profound in urban than rural areas. The study also reveals that female labour in the valley is largely concentrated in subsistence agriculture, retail trade, textiles, crafts with less than one third employed population working as paid employees. In contrary to the general finding about the influence of education on labour force participation, this study has found that women with less than primary education have the highest FLFP followed by labour force participation of women with "No schooling" and completed primary education.

There is much talk of the youth bulge in Pakistan with over 20 per cent of the population, equalling around 40 million, aged 15-24 years. This discourse, however, in most cases misses the inequality in opportunities available to youth that can hinder their successful transition to adulthood. This can have consequences, economic, social and political, not only for the individual but also for the country. An analysis of the HIES shows that 39 per cent of the youth in Pakistan are disconnected from both employment and educational opportunities, with the rates being higher for females and rural areas than for males and urban areas, respectively. Regional differences are also evident among the four provinces, as are those shown by varying household income levels. Educational disconnect seem to mire both, working and non-working youth, with one-third having never been to school. Low end jobs adopted by the working youth are a clear manifestation of this trend. Youth’s own future and that of the country, which aims to achieve the ‘demographic dividend’, are at stake with such high levels of disconnect. Serious steps need to be taken to engage these youth and consequently help manage the negative socio-political and economic impact the country might have to face otherwise.

Social mobility is the movement of individuals or groups in social position over time. In India, social hierarchy has been traditionally organized around caste. Upliftment of economic and social position of backward caste people is an important challenge for the country like India, committed to broaden the base of development. Education is considered as an important driving force for social mobility. But if accessibility to better education itself remains limited to only to the few affluents, it reinforces the social hierarchy again.
Evidences from IHDS 2005-06 shows that, there are only 4.1 percent of people are graduate in India. A great inequality exist between caste group in educational achievement, as among ST just 1.5 percent, among SC just 1.8 percent and among high caste 9.4 percent of people are graduate. Around 35 percent of graduate is engaged in salaried employment which gives higher return compared to the other source of income. Proportion of graduate has increased in younger age group, particularly among disadvantaged communities, which shows that accessibility to education has widened. But the probability of getting a salaried job has decreased for the graduates of younger age group and it decreasing the return of educational betterment particularly for disadvantaged communities.

During the past four decades, level of education of females in Sri Lanka has enhanced rapidly. However, along with the increase of female education throughout the country, their participation of labour has not increased. The paper is to explore the reasons behind the low female labour force participation despite having high achievements in the education. Using secondary data and key informant interviews on Sri Lankan labour market, study found, issues on the education system, high female unemployment, narrowed choices of training programmes available to females, labour market structure, multiple roles of females and availability of child caring facilities as main factors that lower the female participation in the labour force in Sri Lanka. Migration of females to Middle-Eastern countries for employment might also have created a shortage of potential females to the local labour markets.
The age structure transition has produced a demographic dividend, covering the period 1991-2017, which is conducive for an economic takeoff of the country. In order to capitalize this dividend, female participation of productive employment is a crucial parameter. Since this is a rare opportunity, the policy makers should develop appropriate policies to enhance the participation of females in the Sri Lankan labour markets immediately

In India, according to National Sample Survey 2009-10, the female work force participation rate is decreasing in India with a wide regional variation unlike other countries. This calls for an investigation so as to know how and why the rate is declining. We undertake the study to have an insight into the changing trend in female workforce participation within the period of 2004 to 2010. The data source for this study is ‘Employment and Unemployment Situation in India’ of the two rounds of National sample Survey organization (NSSO) namely; the 61th (schedule 10) and the 66 th (schedule 10) rounds conducted during 2004-05 and 2009-10 respectively. The dataset of the two time periods have been pooled and logistic regression analysis has been done so as to know the predictors of the low female workforce participation. The study finds that there has been decrease in female workforce participation (FWP) from 29 percent to 23 percent from 2004 to 2010 whereas the male workforce participation is same over the two periods i.e. 55 percent. The rural, younger, illiterate, poorest, never married, scheduled tribe and Muslim women have higher levels of unemployment.Number of self employed women is declining whereas casual work among women is increasing over the years.

In India, longstanding structural and cultural barriers and pervasive gender inequality have curtailed access to work experience and future employment opportunities for adolescents girls. This paper argues that early exposure to information, communication and technology (ICT) and work experience is rapidly challenging societies and these barriers, changing family and household structures, and importantly creating opportunities to change aspirations and mindsets of adolescent girls, and their families.

This qualitative study was carried out in Tamil Nadu investigated attitudes and structural barriers faced by young females attending two engineering colleges. Questionnaires were completed by male (n=364) and female students (n=241), representing all social groups and castes. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to explore the role of agency and structure in promoting and constraining the student's aspirations and ambitions.

This paper presents the girls’ perceptions of the difficulties and realities they face, giving unique insights to the barriers facing this cohort of the ICT era, and struggles between reality and optimism. Interestingly, these young women were more focused on studies, determined to succeed, and many had higher goals and aspirations than their male counterparts.

This paper estimates returns to education in India using a nationally representative survey. We estimate the standard Mincerian wage equation separately for the rural and urban sectors. To account for the possibility of sample selection bias, Heckman two-step procedure is used. The findings indicate that returns to education increase with the level of education and differ for rural and urban residents. Private rates of return are higher for graduation level in both the sectors. In general, the disadvantaged social groups of the society tend to earn lower wages. We find family background is an important determinant affecting the earnings of individuals. Using quantile regression method, we show that the effect of education is not the same across the wage distribution. Returns differ considerably within education groups across different points of the wage distribution. Returns to education are positive at all quantiles. The results show that the returns are lower at the bottom quantiles and are higher at the upper quantiles.