A PROFILE OF SOUTH ASIA AT WORK
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TABLE 3.3 Reasons why urban women in South Asia do not participate in the labor force, by country (percent) Country/year
Old age
Illness
Afghanistan, 2008 Bangladesh, 2005 Bhutan, 2007 Maldives, 2004 Nepal, 2008 Pakistan, 2009 Sri Lanka, 2008
0.2 0.3 3.6 — 7.0 1.3 5.3
0.6 2.2 2.7 11.1 0.7 1.0 1.8
Household duties 81.0 81.1 60.4 46.7 51.6 81.1 75.5
Education
Discouraged
Other
12.9 15.0 26.9 22.8 29.6 16.2 15.8
2.2 0.2 2.6 — 4.7 0.1 0.4
3.2 1.0 3.8 19.5 6.3 0.4 1.3
Source: Authors, based on data from national labor force and household surveys. Note: — = Not available.
Improving economic opportunities for and educational attainment of women could contribute to improved utilization and allocation of South Asia’s female labor force. Women’s decision to participate in market work is not independent of the occupational and earnings opportunities available to women in the labor market as these impact incentives to participate. Consistent with global evidence on employment segregation by gender (World Bank 2012), women in South Asia are less likely to access the better jobs (see last section of this chapter). They also earn significantly less for the same type of job, even after controlling for differences in education. Improving opportunities requires interventions that relax time constraints, increase access to productive inputs, and correct institutional and market failures that contribute to employment segregation. (For a comprehensive discussion of options to improve economic opportunities for women, see World Bank 2012.)
The nature of employment This section begins by describing employment patterns by location and sector in South Asia. It then looks at employment status and informality.
Employment patterns by location and sector Most South Asians work in rural areas (table 3.4). The concentration in rural areas reflects the fact that more than 70 percent
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of the region’s working-age population lives in rural areas and rural employment rates are higher than urban rates in all countries except Maldives. In Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, and Nepal, at least half of all employment remains in agriculture. Only in Maldives is this sector a relatively minor source of employment. Services are important in most countries, representing more than 40 percent of total employment in Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. The industrial sector, including manufacturing, utilities, and construction, is relatively small, despite the great importance attached to industrialization since independence (Srinivasan 2010). In Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, 20–27 percent of the employed workforce works in industry, with most of them in manufacturing. As expected, these sectoral patterns differ substantially between rural and urban areas. Agriculture is the largest sector of employment in rural areas in all countries except Maldives and Sri Lanka. In urban areas, most workers are in the service sector. Manufacturing accounts for about a quarter of urban workers in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Sectoral employment patterns are changing. The share of agriculture employment in total employment has been declining by about 0.5 percentage points a year in recent decades in countries where statistics are available over time. In the five largest countries in the region, employment growth in agriculture was slower than other sectors in the fi rst decade of this century (figure 3.6).
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