Work participation among women in Kerala is 22.9 percent (NSS 99-00), which is one of the lowest in India. This low labour force participation is accompanied by high rates of unemployment. The most tragic failure of development in the State is the acute unemployment of both men and women. Reckoned in terms of all the three measures of unemployment – usual status, current weekly status, and current daily status - used by NSS, Kerala has the highest incidence of unemployment both for males and females and in rural as well as urban areas. The overall unemployment rate in Kerala is 11.4, with a wide gender gap of 21.5 percent for women and 7.4 percent for men.
According to NSSO data the percentage of women in paid jobs in the state is slightly less than 23 percent. This is much less than the work participation rate of women
in other Indian states with far lower levels of literacy. For example States like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharastra with around 50 percent of female literacy rate, report double the female work participation rate of Kerala. Figures from NSSO survey (1999-00) show that the proportion of jobless women in Kerala is ten times the national average.
While the male work participation rates improved in the last two decades, female work participation rates declined during the same period. Comparing it with the all India pattern, while male work participation rate in Kerala is higher than India (1999-00), the trend is reversed in the case of women. This is paradoxical given the fact that, women in Kerala are believed to enjoy a higher status in terms of educational and health achievements compared to their counter parts elsewhere in the country. But this is not reflected in their work participation rates.
One among the objectives of Social work is to promote a balanced development... bring the women to the fore front of the society... It is evident that the employment sector was more or less ignored...
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