In the Indian culture, marriage has been undeniably influential on deciding whether a woman can work or not? Recently released Census 2011 data offers a handful of mind blowing facts. Take a glimpse:
Married women are more likely to be working than the unmarried women. Women who are occupied with a regular job are likely to have fewer children.
The ill-fated part about the census is that there is favoritism for patriarchal values. Preference for a son was highlighted through the consensus, thereby causing a fall in the sex ratio.
In the child-bearing age group of 15-49 years, just 27% of unmarried women are working compared with 41% among married women. Experts say that most unmarried women are young and families don’t allow them to go out to work. This also shows that girls get married just after they surpass a young age. After getting married, they are allowed to work, thereby proliferating the working rate.
Marginal workers women who have irregular or casual jobs for less than six months in a year show the tense equation between a desire to limit children and son preference. The fertility rate is still high among them at 3.4 though down from 3.7 a decade ago. But the sex ratio has slightly improved from 911 in 2001 to 914 in 2011.
In a bid to deliver a son, women are forced to engender pregnancy. Due to various economic issues, women and their families are not in a position to assess sex-selective abortions. Sex selective abortion is not acceptable in communities like tribals and Muslims. Majority of these community people form a part of marginal workers.
The total fertility rate or average number of children born to a woman over her full child-bearing years has dipped to 2.9 for working women from 3.3 a decade ago.
On the other hand, the fertility rate is higher at 3.1 among non-workers, only marginally down from 3.2 in 2001. In both cases, the sex ratio of children born in the last year is falling.
Among working women sex ratio dipped from 912 in 2001 to 901 in 2011. Among non-workers, the sex ratio fell from 901 to 894 in this period.
There is a sea difference between the rural and Urban India. In rural areas, only half of the married women work in rural areas. In urban areas, contrarily, 22% married women pursue jobs.
