Women disappear from workforce

Economic loss: Women walk past umbrellas displayed for sale along a street in Srinagar. The number of working women in India dropped from 26% to 19% between 2010 and 2020. — AFP

NEW DELHI: For years, Sanchuri Bhuniya fought her parents’ pleas to settle down. She wanted to travel and earn money – not become a housewife.

So in 2019, Bhuniya snuck out of her isolated village in eastern India. She took a train hundreds of km south to the city of Bengaluru and found work in a garment factory earning US$120 (RM527) a month.