FEMALE LABOUR IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE 45 for falling work participation rate of women with agricultural development will be supported partly if geographical differences in the participation rate among the States are revealed. Data on female work participation rates for two Census decades, 1961 and 1971, are given for 17 States in Table 1. The States for the 1971 data have been arranged in the descending order of female work participation rates. It is found that the female work participation rates in 1971 seem to have significantly declined in all the States as compared to 1961. It is interesting to note that the participation rate was the lowest in the argi culturally advanced States like Haryana and Punjab in 1971, although in 1961 it was not so. From this particular result, it is possible to conclude that technological changes may have forced women out of wage-earning and made them join in the household chores. This may be true partly or fully in these two regions of India, but this is not true for all the so-called agriculturally advanced States of India. For example, regions like Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh etc., are also regarded as agriculturally developed regions, but the female work participation rates in these STATE-WISE FEMAL TABLE IE WORK PARTICParticii ;IPATION RATnation Rates 'ES States 1961 1971 Total Total Rural Urban (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Andhra Pradesh 40.5 25.24 28.59 11.05 Maharashtra 38.1 21.49 26.56 9.16 Himachal Pradesh — 21.46 22.37 7.51 Madhya Pradesh 44.0 19.77 22.01 7.62 Tamil Nadu 31.3 16.96 19,88 10.10 Mysore 32.0 15.13 16.82 9.70 Kerala 19.7 13.68 14.29 10.50 Gujarat 27.9 10.65 12.51 5.74 Bihar 27.1 10.58 11.00 6.42 Rajasthan 35.9 10.42 11.47 5.40 Uttar Pradesh 18.1 8.78 9.52 4.07 Orissa 26.6 7.58 7.62 7.10 Assam 30.9 6.15 6.31 4.25 West Bengal 9.4 5.36 5.54 4.74 Jammu & Kasmir 25.6 4.86 5.17 3.45 Haryana — 3.17 3.17 3.17 Punjab 14.2 1.67 1.26 3.01 India 28.0 13.18 14.55 7.38 SOURCE: For col. (2), Census of India 1961, Paper No. I: Final Population Totals. For cols. (3)-(5), Census of India, Paper 1 of 1971 Supplement, Provisional Population Totals.