Family Planning and Women’s Work Participation in India

Women’s participation in labor force has been lower than that of men’s in many developing countries. The gender differences in labor participation are attributed mainly to prevailing social and cultural barriers that tend to affect women’s participation in workforce. With decline in fertility and consequent changes in the age structure of many developing countries there has been greater interest on the behavior of women’s work participation in view of the perceived demographic dividend from higher composition of working age population. Demographic transition brought through health and family planning (FP) programs is shown to induce change in women’s social and economic position, in turn, influencing their labor force participation. Acceptance of FP operation gives women greater freedom to use time and opportunity more efficiently by choosing to participate or not to in workforce as a consequence of curtailing childbearing. Evidently, NFHS-3 data suggest that female sterilization acceptors have had much higher work participation than that of non-acceptors among ever married women in the ages 15-49 years in India. The question is, does FP program benefit women in India in increasing their labor force participation, if yes among which sections of society or whom does it matter and where? This is important not only for old security