IHDS data reveal great wage disparities among Indian women, by caste, religion, location, and region

Using data from the 2005 and 2011-12 waves of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), authors Pandoh and Singh were able to conduct perhaps the first comprehensive study that focused on socioeconomic disparities in wages specifically among and within groups of women workers in India. The IHDS, available from DSDR, is a nationally representative multi-topic panel survey, conducted in 41,554 households, 1,503 villages and 971 urban neighborhoods across India. It contains geographically and topically comprehensive information that allowed Pandoh and Singh to study wage mobility and long-term inequality trends. They focused on women who were 15 and older, and who were not in school but were earning wages, and they categorized them by caste, religion, urban and rural geographic location, and region. Pandoh and Singh found large wage disparities, both within and among women in these four categories. Most concerning, overall wage inequality among women reached extremely high levels and actually increased during the period between IHDS waves. Despite the age of the IHDS data they used, Pandoh and Singh argued that it still provided relevant insights for “understanding the historical context and structural aspects of wage disparities among women in India.”

May 29, 2025