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Covid-19 has dealt a heavy blow on women empowerment as net EPF enrolments for women declined 12.3% in 2020-21 compared to the last year, according to a report.

Net EPF enrolments for men in the same period rose by 0.63%, showing that women have been hit harder by the pandemic.

A further breakup of this year’s enrolment data indicates that while new enrolments for both men and women declined 23% from last year, more women exited formal employment than men.

“Of the 840,523 exits (number of persons leaving the workforce minus number of people who rejoined), two-thirds were women. Over half a million women exited formal employment during the pandemic, nearly double the number of men,” according to a report in The Business Standard.

EPFO data

EPFO data categorises enrolments and exits for six age classes (below 18, 18-21, 22-25, 26-28, 29-35, and 35 and above).

“The 35-plus category also includes those retiring; removing that distinction shows that of the 546,936 women who lost jobs in 2020-21, as many as 349,319 were below 35. In proportion to women, only a third of men under 35 (113,319) exited formal employment during this period,” according to the report.

Last year, a report by UN Women had said that about 740 million women work in the informal economy and their income fell by 60% globally in the initial months of the pandemic.

Only 9% women employed: CMIE

An earlier report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) had said that India’s biggest challenge on the employment front was getting its womenfolk into the labour force. “While 67% of all men of working age group are employed, only 9% of all women of working age are employed,” it said

“Women face a particularly hard time in deteriorating labour market conditions. Although the labour participation rate for women is very low at less than 11% compared to 71% for men, they face a much higher unemployment rate of 17% compared to 6 % for men,” CMIE said.