The total work force in any economy, conceptually, includes all those who contribute to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the economy. That is, there is always a correspondence between the GDP generated in the economy and the total workforce that constitutes to its generation. One of the major functions of labour force statistics is to net all the workers in the workforce statistics comprehensively. Some how, this simple looking point does not get translated into reality, particularly in developing countries, due to various conceptual, definitional and methodological problems. One important aspect of the history of labour statistics in India is the continuous efforts made for netting comprehensively the workforce in the country. Though considerable successes have been achieved in these efforts, the fact remains that even today the size of the workforce in India, and particularly of women workers, is underestimated. As shown by Table 1 the workforce participation rates (WPR) of men and particularly of women are as low as 15% in urban India and 28.6% in rural India (1993-94)! It is difficult to accept these rates for women in an economy which is predominantly agricultural and where the incidence of poverty is still significant (around 36 to 37%).