New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS) Unlike Pakistan, most South Asian countries have successfully increased women's economic participation. The female labour force participation rate is 40 per cent in Bangladesh, 54 per cent in Indonesia, 56 per cent in Malaysia and 33 per cent in Sri Lanka. Yet despite various efforts, out of 88 million working-age women in Pakistan, only 23 per cent are part of economic activity, while 68 million remain outside the labour force, according to an article in Karachi-headquartered The News International.
The 2024-25 Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows no significant change over the last 25 years: participation grew only a few percentage points, from 14 per cent in 2001 to 22 per cent in 2024.
The women who do work are confined to a few occupations and industries. Nearly two-thirds work in agriculture, and half of working women are unpaid family workers. In other words, they work without receiving a proper wage. The wholesale, retail, transport and communication sectors contribute close to a third of GDP, yet barely 2-3 per cent of women work in them, says the article.
The article points out that although culture is often considered the major barrier, but the when women are getting education at university level even in remote areas of Pakistan, perhaps then culture is not the main barrier.
“If families are willing to send daughters to university, the barrier is clearly not some immovable cultural wall. The real barrier is the absence of an ecosystem in which women can work and perform in economic activity,” the article observes.
First, unlike its neighbours, Pakistan's industrial base is not expanding, and so it is not opening doors for women. Bangladesh transformed itself through textiles, where women became the backbone of the industry, making up two of every three workers on the factory floor. Malaysia's vibrant manufacturing and services sectors similarly absorb women in large numbers. Pakistan built no such engine.
Second, mobility quietly decides everything. Safe, reliable and affordable public transport expands the geographic radius within which a woman can look for work. Most Pakistani cities offer no such thing, forcing women to turn down distant jobs or shrink their options to informal work near home -- and too often to endure harassment at bus stops and in public spaces along the way.
"Third, women here also lack the incentives that elsewhere tip the balance. On a recent visit to Nepal, I watched women running shops and businesses across Kathmandu, standing shoulder to shoulder with men. This journey has been encouraged by a 50 per cent income-tax reduction for women-registered businesses. The government of Nepal backs them further through a consolidated Women Entrepreneurship Fund, subsidised and collateral-free SME loans, startup enterprise loans, free or discounted micro-business registration and intellectual property registration," the report notes.
Yet, the biggest barrier of all sits inside every home: the enormous burden of unpaid domestic work that claims a woman's hours long before she can even reach the labour market.
Estimates from the 2024 LFS show that 84 per cent of working-age women bear the domestic work burden, and their weekly working hours are almost double those of men (26 hours for women and 13 hours for men). This fact rewrites the narrative that millions of women in Pakistan are ‘doing nothing’, the article states.
The lesson is hard to miss. Creating jobs, teaching skills, backing women entrepreneurs, all of it is necessary. But none of it will help women join paid jobs if they have domestic work responsibilities.
Various efforts on promoting education and skills would not succeed if millions of potential women workers stay tied to domestic responsibilities, the article added.
--IANS
sps/na
