COVID-19 and women's labour crisis reiterating an inclusive policy response

The COVID-19 pandemic in India has had an unequal impact on women in a number of ways In terms of economic opportunity, it has been seen that more women lost jobs compared to men and fewer have been able to rejoin labour force This is in the context of gendered labour markets where female labour force participation has been low and declining This paper presents an analysis of the situation of women's employment pre-lockdown and some indications on what the impact of COVID-19 could be, based on microstudies and other literature available Further, the adequacy of the social protection and employment generation programmes of the government that are specifically aimed at improving female labour force participation is assessed © 2021 Economic and Political Weekly All rights reserved