Female Labour Force Participation – Explained Pointwise

India’s Low Female Labour Force Participation rate is a big threat to India’s Demographic Dividend. India still has not cracked the code of getting women to work in time. Any further delay in improving the female labour force participation in productive sector, will be detrimental to India’s dream of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

Table of Content

What is Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR)? What are the reasons for low Female Labour Force Participation rate in India? What is the significance of enhancing Female Labour Force Participation? What steps have been taken by the Government to enhance Female Labour Force Participation? What should be the Way Forward?

What is Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR)?

• Female Labour Force Participation Rate is a ratio of the number of women who are part of the labour force to the number of women in the working age (greater than 15 years of age).
• A woman is considered to be a part of the labour force if she is either employed or actively looking for work.

FLFPR trend in India:

1. Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) is consistently increasing in India. The FLFPR has risen from 33.9% in 2022 to 40% in 2025. However, it is still remains well below the global average (49%) & emerging market peers like Brazil (53%) & Vietnam (69%).

   

2. Glass Ceiling:
   • While the FLFPR is rising, their presence in senior positions in various spheres is much lower .
   • Female representation is low in business decision making as well. According to MoSPI’s Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises, the share of  female-owned proprietary establishments stood at 27% in 2025.
   • According to PLFS, for every 100 males working as legislators, senior officials, and managers in 2025, there are only 13 females in similar high positions.
   • While nearly all of India’s leading firms have a woman as a director on their boards, 77% had only 1-2 women as directors.
   • Only 7% of BSE200 & 5% of NSE500 board chairpersons are women.
     Without achieving a critical mass (30% according to research), their presence at top risks being symbolic rather than substantive in India’s corporate governance landscape.

     

3. The simple average of the FLFPR of the five southern Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala) is 13% lower than the five northern states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. This defies the conventional belief that southern states, with high literacy and women empowerment indices, will have high FLFPR.
4. There are only four states (Assam, Bihar, Haryana and Delhi) with an FLFPR of less than 25%. Delhi has the lowest at 14.8%.
5. According to the World Bank, Indian women’s participation in the formal economy is among the lowest in the world. Only some parts of the Arab world perform worse than India in terms of FLFPR.

What are the reasons for low Female Labour Force Participation rate in India?

1. High Degree of Informalisation: According to a 2018 study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 95% of India’s working women are informal workers. The absence of social security net in the informal sector discourages women from participating in the labour force.
2. Missing manufacturing: Lack of alternative employment opportunities in manufacturing and the limited number of jobs in services for women, has also suppressed FLFPR in India.
3. Gender Pay Gap and Glass ceiling: According to the Economic Survey 2018, India has one of the largest gender gap in median earnings of full-time employees. Such discriminatory practices at workplace adversely affects FLFPR.
4. Pink Jobs: The societal notions about ‘gendered occupations’ limit the role of women to specific job profiles like nursing, teaching, gynaecologist etc. There are tangible and intangible barriers to entry of women in multiple professions like heavy engineering, law enforcement, armed forces etc.
5. Cultural practices: Unpaid care, child care and domestic chores, has hindered women’s ability to participate in the labour force. In a patriarchal society, many women are not allowed to work after marriage.
6. Time Poverty: Indian women spend an average of 363 minutes per day on unpaid domestic work, compared to just 123 minutes for men. This “time poverty” is the single largest barrier to formal employment.
7. Increase in Household Income: The rise in household incomes in both the rural and urban areas has provided women the choice to not take up jobs.
8. Safety Concerns: High incidents of violence against women at workplace as well as in public places discourages women to work in the night like their male counterparts. Further, instances of sexual harassment at workplace induces women to opt out of labour force.
9. Educated Unemployment: Women are going for higher education, as seen in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of secondary education. The lack of availability of jobs that match the high female education levels also contributes to the low FLFPR.
10. Legally sanctioned restrictions: Many States continue to restrict women’s participation in hazardous jobs in factories and commercial establishments for e.g. women are not allowed to work on stone-cutting machines, shop floor of boilers, etc.
11. Political Vacuum: The current Lok Sabha has only 14.4% women, despite women constituting around 50% of Indian population. The lack of gender perspectives inhibits formulation of a comprehensive policy that encourages women participation in economic activities.

What is the significance of enhancing Female Labour Force Participation?

1. Economic Boost: According to the IMF, gender parity in the workforce can improve India’s GDP by 27%.
2. Poverty Reduction: Women’s earnings improve household income diversification, reduce poverty, breaking intergenerational poverty cycles. It helps to tackle the phenomenon of feminisation of poverty, which is a result of highly informalised work performed by women.
3. Improvement in Social Indicators: Encouraging more women to enter the formal workforce will improve indicators like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR).
4. Self Confidence and Dignity: Financial independence enables women to play a greater role in decision-making like family planning.
5. Demographic Dividend Utilisation: With a young population, India needs all hands to capitalize on its demographic dividend. Excluding women undermines productivity gains and risks a demographic burden instead. With India’s population growth slowing, women’s participation is vital to sustaining the labor supply required for the “Make in India” and services-led growth models. 
6. The “Multiplier Effect”: Studies consistently show that women invest a larger portion of their income (up to 90%) into their children’s education, nutrition, and healthcare compared to men.
7. Social Norms Shift: Rising FLFP challenges patriarchal norms, normalizes working women, and encourages policy changes like better childcare, safe transport, and workplace flexibility, creating a virtuous cycle.
8. Fiscal & Demographic Balance: It expands the tax base, reduces dependency ratios, and supports social security systems. It also addresses labor shortages in sectors like manufacturing and care economy.
9. Global Commitments: Improving FLFPR is related to achievements of SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities).

What steps have been taken by the Government to enhance Female Labour Force Participation?

Mission Shakti	Mission Shakti is the flagship initiative designed to support women throughout their life cycle. It is divided into two sub-schemes: 1. Sambal (Safety & Security): Includes One Stop Centres (OSC) for legal and medical aid, the 181 Women Helpline, and Nari Adalats (women’s collectives) to facilitate gender justice. 2. Samarthya (Empowerment): Focuses on economic independence: SakhiNiwas: Working Women Hostels that provide safe and affordable accommodation. Palna: A national crèche scheme that provides childcare facilities in or near workplaces (including Anganwadis) to reduce the “double burden” on working mothers.
Skill Development	PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): Nearly 45% of the candidates trained under this national skill development program are women. 30% reservation for women in all Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). NAVYA initiative is a pilot program to equip adolescent girls with vocational training in non-traditional job roles. Swavalambini program aims to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset among female students in higher education. Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP): A NITI Aayog initiative that acts as a one-stop portal for women to access mentorship, funding, and networking.
Economic & Entrepreneurship Incentives	Lakhpati Didi Scheme: Aimed at empowering 3 crore (30 million) rural women to earn an annual income of at least ₹1 Lakh through micro-enterprises and skill training. Drone Didi: A specialized initiative to train 15,000 SHG women as drone pilots for agricultural purposes (pesticide spraying, crop monitoring), integrating women into high-tech rural jobs. Mudra Yojana & Stand-Up India: These schemes provide collateral-free loans. Notably, over 68% of Mudra loan beneficiaries are women, helping them start or scale small businesses. Stand up India: The scheme facilitates bank loans for setting up a new enterprise in manufacturing, services, agri-allied activities, or the trading sector by SC/ST/Women entrepreneurs. It provides bank loans between INR 10 lakh and up to 1 crore.
Safety & Dignity at Work	Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013: The Act was enacted to protect women from sexual harassment at their place of work. SHe-Box Portal: ‘SHe-Box’ portal provides a centralized online system to file complaints related to workplace sexual harassment.
New Labour Codes	Code on Wages (2019): Equal pay for equal work; no gender discrimination in recruitment or wages. Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) 2020: Women are now legally permitted to work night shifts and in all sectors (including underground mining and heavy machinery), provided their consent is given and the employer ensures safety and transportation. Maternity Benefits: The Maternity Benefit Act (amended) provides 26 weeks of paid leave and mandates crèche facilities for establishments with 50+ employees. It proposed an option to work from home after this period, on mutual agreement with the employer.
Anganwadi centres under the ICDS	They provide maternal and child nutritional security, a clean and safe environment, and early childhood education. Thus, they facilitate the ability of women to re-enter work post-childbirth.
National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013	Apart from providing affordable food, it entitles pregnant and lactating mothers to a cash transfer of at least INR 6,000. This is done to break the compulsion for early returning to work.

What should be the Way Forward?

1. Strengthening the “Care Economy”: The single largest barrier to female participation remains “time poverty” due to the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic work. The care economy can be addressed by following:
   1. Child Care Subsidies: Child-care subsidies should be provided to free up mothers’ time to enter the labour force, which would have significant implications in increasing female employment.
   2. Universal Childcare: Scaling the Palna scheme beyond Anganwadis into urban industrial clusters and IT hubs.
   3. Elder-Care Infrastructure: As India’s demographic shifts, elder care is becoming a new domestic burden. Developing a regulated professional caregiving industry can simultaneously reduce women’s domestic load and create new jobs.
   4. Normalizing Paternity Leave: Moving toward “Gender Neutral Parental Leave” to shift the societal expectation that caregiving is solely a female responsibility.
2. Comprehensive approach to improve women labour force participation: A comprehensive approach aimed at improving skill development, access to child care, maternity protection, and provision of safe and accessible transport, is needed.
3. Removal of the legally sanctioned legislation: States should review legislations like the Factory Act, Shops and Establishment Act etc. and liberalise the restrictions on women. The best practices from well performing States can be adopted across all States for e.g. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the only two states that allow women to work in all processes in all establishments.
4. Creation of Self Help Groups: The focus should be on creation of more Self Help Groups. They are of immense reliance and drastically enhance women participation as seen in case of Kudumbashree model of Kerala.
5. Use of innovative solutions to enhance female retention in industries: Public crèches can be operated at worksite clusters such as near industrial areas, markets, dense low-income residential areas, and labour nakas. This model has been tested successfully by Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Sangini in some Indian cities.
6. Formalizing the Gig Economy: Leveraging the e-Shram portal (which now has over 54% female registration) to provide social security and health benefits to women in the gig and platform economy (e.g., beauty services, digital tutoring). 
7. Safety Infrastructure: Implement women-centric policing and improve lighting in public spaces to reduce dependency on costly private transport (the ‘Pink Tax’).
8. Returnships: Create “returnship” programmes specifically for women re-entering the workforce after a career break due to caregiving.

Conclusion: There is a need to take multiple steps to augment the female labour force participation in India in order to realise the numerous social and economic benefits that accrue from greater presence of women in the workforce. It can help India move from women-centric development to women-led development.

Read More: Indian Express UPSC Syllabus- GS 3 Inclusive Growth, GS 1 Women empowerment, GS 2 Vulnerable sections of the society