The incidence of women labour force participation is very low in Pakistan. According to the Labour Force Survey, 1999-2000 female participation rate was merely 14 percent of the total labour force. Even though average annual growth rate of female labour force participation has been increasing slightly in Pakistan; it was 4 percent in 1980-99 and has gone up to 5.1 percent during 1995-98,1 however, this rate is still very low as compared to the other South Asian countries—42 percent in Bangladesh, 41 percent in Nepal, 32 percent in India and Bhutan, 37 percent in Sri Lanka [World Bank (2002)]. This paper is an attempt to identify household related factors that lead to women participation in the economic activities. This issue has been taken up in a number of other studies.2 The innovative aspect of this paper is that it relates women’s decision to participate in economic activities with their empowerment—who makes the decision to participate in the labour force—whether it is the women themselves or others. We would like to state at the very onset that this paper is a first cut to explore the issues of women’s participation in economic activities and their and empowerment. We hope to get feedback in the conference to improve the technical aspects of this paper and explore other aspects of this issue.
accounts for 22 per cent of the global population. 2 Poverty is more than meager physical deprivation of goods and services. It has social and psychological effects that prevent people from realizing their own potential. The incidence of poverty is generally defined as the proportion of the population that does not have enough income to purchase a reference food bundle yielding a specified amount of calories per day and to provide for a modest allowance for non-food commodities and services. 3 According to the Pakistan Socio Economic Survey (PSES) 1998-99.
Child labour has emerged as a serious, widespread and growing problem in many parts of the world. Asia has a large number of children employed as child labourers. Child Labour Survey 1996 reports that there are 3.3 million children working between the ages of 5 and 14 years in Pakistan. Developed countries have linked trade with child labour through the Harkin Bill and the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Agreement (1994), which banned the market manufactured or mined goods produced in whole or in part by children under 15 years of age. Pakistan is also facing restrictions on some of its exports due to allegations of child labour. However, Pakistan has enacted the Employment of Children Act of 1991, which has banned employment of children below the age of 14 years.
Labour market performance in Pakistan has improved markedly in recent years. This paper examines the extent to which young people have benefited from this improvement, using the labour market vulnerability framework that was recently introduced by the ILO. This framework can be used to assess the difficulties young people face on the road to decent employment, and may also serve as a basis for the development of appropriate policies and interventions. Drawing on empirical evidence from various surveys, in particular the Labour Force Survey, we conclude that vulnerability among the youth has generally been reduced since 1999-2000. Vulnerability of women has been reduced through higher enrolment rates in education, and unemployment among both men and women has declined. Far less progress has been made in reducing vulnerability among the employed, and youth still face numerous obstacles that hamper the attainment of decent employment. The paper offers recommendations on the role of labour market information in reducing youth vulnerability.
Introduction As societies grapple with incorporating the concepts of gender equality and gender sensitivity, female decision making is quickly losing its designation as a peripheral issue. Indeed the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women in support of the Commission on the Status of Women has been exploring the question of women and decision making for some time. In 1997 it called upon governments to take into consideration diverse decision making styles and to enhance the images of women in political and public spheres [UN, (2000)].
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