Report shows more than half of India's working-age population out of labour force

"It is a serious cause of worry as you are unable to utilise the demographic dividend factor — especially keeping in mind the fact that 65 percent of the population is in the working age group," Radhicka Kapoor, senir felloe, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, told the paper.

The LFPR is the share of the population working or available for work. In 2011,12, however, LFPR had declined by 11.5 percent, higher than the drop seen in 2017-18, the report said.

According to the report, the  proportion of the active women-led labour force declined twice between 2011-12 and 2017-18. While the LFPR for females fell by 8 percent to 23.3 percent in 2017-18 when compared to 2011-12, the rate for males dropped 4 percent to 75.8 percent.

The fall in the LFPR was higher in rural areas than urban areas, falling to 58.7 percent from 67.7 percent. In urban areas, the rate fell from 49.3 percent to 47.6 percent.