ABSTRACT
The rate of growth in employment fell in the 1990s, while the unemployment rate grew since the labour force increased at a faster pace than employment. After 2000, the increase in poorly paid self-employment, particularly for women, accounts for the recovery in workforce participation rates. The decisive political verdict of the Indian voters against economic liberalization produced a brief period of consensus on the need for an Employment Guarantee Act (EGA), which, by its very nature, was fragile, breaking under the weight of its own contradictions. The gender-based division of labour, because of which women bear the triple burden of unpaid work for family reproduction, income generation and customary social responsibilities, gives rise to the compulsion for female workers to remain close to the homestead and family farm even though men may migrate in search of relatively higher income work.
