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Women in Bundelkhand's Workforce

	The proportion of women in the workforce in Bundelkhand is generally higher than the India average

(The proportion of women in the workforce is also called female work participation, and is calculated as percentage of main+ marginal female workers in total female population. While discussing Census data, we refer to 'females' rather than 'women', as working persons below the age of 15 also come under the Census definition of 'workers'.)

While, according to Census 2001, female workers constituted around 25% of the total female population in India, and only around 16% of the female population in UP, in all Bundelkhand districts except Jhansi and Jalaun, they constituted over 30% of the female population (see table below).

This may indicate that cultural norms which discourage women from working in UP are not generally as deeply rooted in Bundelkhand. However, higher female work participation could also be seen as sign of higher economic vulnerability. It is also an indicator of lower enrollment of girls in schools, as working girls are also considered 'workers'.

Comparatively low female work participation in Jhansi is in tune with female work participation in other districts of India that have a fairly high urban population - the proportion of working females in urban India is lower than in rural India.

However, as the table shows, generally less than 50% of female workers in Bundelkhand are 'main workers' - engaged in economic activity for the major part of six months or more in the year.

The exception is in Sagar, where according to Census 2001 data, nearly 70,000 female main workers are engaged in household - mainly beedi manufacturing - industry, constituting over half the total number of main workers in this industry, in this district. A similarly high percentage of female main workers are engaged in the beedi manufacturing industry in Damoh.

The percentage of female workers engaged as main workers in MP Bundelkhand is significantly higher than in all UP Bundelkhand districts except Chitrakoot.

As with the rest of the working population (see table in Employment Sources in Bundelkhand), the majority of female workers are employed in agriculture. Of note is the number of women who work mainly as cultivators (last column of below table). In Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Datia, Tikamgarh and Chhatarpur, over 60% of female main workers are cultivators, and analysis of Census 2001 data shows that in all districts of Bundelkhand except Jalaun, Damoh and Sagar, women constitute 15-20% of main workers who are cultivators.

Also of note is the fact that according to Census 2001 data, only in Sagar and Jhansi districts are there more than 15,000 female main workers engaged in 'other work', which includes working in government service, private sector factories, small industrial units, and businesses engaged in trading or service sector activities.

Female workers in Bundelkhand (Census 2001)

| Employment Sources | Breakup of Non-agricultural Main Workers | Women in Workforce | Bonded Labour |