New Delhi, Aug. 19 -- One of the striking changes in India's labour market over the past several years has been the steady rise in women's labour force participation. Since the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) began in 2017-18, the female labour force participation rate has risen from roughly one-quarter of working-age women to above 40% in the latest annual data. The increase has been especially pronounced in rural India.

The rise is now widely acknowledged, but its interpretation remains contested. Two criticisms deserve particular attention.

The first is methodological: changes in the instructions given to PLFS field investigators in 2023-24 may have improved the identification of subsidiary economic activity among women otherwise...