Labour force participation rates of elderly and its correlates in the Indian States

In the absence of full-fledged social security measures and an increase in their expectation of life, elderly persons have started to participate in one or more economic avenues for earning some income mostly to meet their livelihood. Such a situation is taking place slowly in India during the recent past. Because of this phenomenon, in the paper, an attempt is made to understand the patterns, differentials, and correlates of elderly persons’ labour force participation rates based on the 2011 Census data for the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India at the aggregate level. The Labour force participation rates (LFPRs) of the elderly persons (60+ years) by gender that LFPRs are much higher for male elderly as compared to their female counterparts, but differentials do exist. LFPRs are negatively correlated with the indicators of socio-economic development such as the percentage of elderly living in urban areas, per capita income and sex ratio of elderly, whereas such rates are positively correlated with the percentage of SC/ST and illiteracy of the elderly population at the states/UTs. Appropriate policy implications have been suggested.