By Devayani Sathyan and Veronica Dudei Maia Khongwir
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian women’s participation in the workforce will take at least two decades to catch up with G20 peers, according to a Reuters poll of economists and policy experts, many of whom said they believed poorly-paid self-employment is inflating an already-low rate.
Overall job creation is falling short of the needs of India’s mostly young, rapidly-growing working-age population. Women, who make up half of that pool, are largely absent from the workforce and most women with jobs are not formally employed on payrolls.
The official female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) rose to 31.7% from 27.8% in the latest 2023-24 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), but is well short of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2047 development goal to raise it to 70%, putting it more in line with advanced economies.
India is at the bottom of the G20 table, behind Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and lower than even neighbouring Bangladesh and Bhutan, according to World Bank data. The G20 average is around 50%.
A majority, 80%, of top independent economists and policy experts surveyed over the past month, 32 of 40, said it would take at least 20 to 30 years for India to reach a rate comparable to other G20 economies, including 18 who said it would take more than three decades. The remaining eight said it would take 10-20 years.
“The kind of work women are involved in is not really what we call good jobs or good quality work. It’s really just bottom of the ladder, survivalist kind. It’s good they’re participating but it’s not the kind of transformational participation you might imagine,” said Ashwini Deshpande, a professor and head of the department of economics at Ashoka University.
“The job crisis is much more acute than in countries with similar levels of GDP…And when jobs are scarce, men get the first priority everywhere,” added Deshpande.
Only 15.9% of working women are in regular wage or salaried jobs, the kind that come with contracts, steady pay or benefits.
While officials have noted the recent rise in female labour force participation as a sign of progress, the latest PLFS survey showed 73.5% of rural working women and over 40% with jobs in urban areas are self-employed.
Asked what they make of the official data over 70% of economists surveyed, 32 of 43, said it masked the real picture.
“Ideally…you should see household earnings also go up when women are participating and that has not happened, which is a very big marker that this is potentially not the best kind of employment. It’s potentially distress-driven,” said Rosa Abraham, assistant professor at Azim Premji University.
Asked if the recent rise in FLFPR signals real progress, she said: “That level of shift is still nowhere near what you would expect at this level of economic development that we are in and there’s still a long way to go.”
Over 70% of experts said the Indian government’s overall unemployment data was inaccurate and masked the severity of joblessness and underemployment.
Even when jobs are available, safety concerns and unpaid care work prevent many women from applying. They spend nearly five hours daily on household duties, over three times as much as men, according to the 2025 Time Use Survey.
“For women the productive and reproductive age coincide. Hence childcare and lack of suitable facilities serve as a constraint,” said Sangeeta Shroff, former professor at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. “To address such issues, it will require aggressive policy intervention which will require considerable time and resources.”
Asked what the government should prioritise, respondents highlighted expanding childcare, safer workplaces and stronger anti-discrimination measures.
Bina Agarwal, professor of development economics and environment at the University of Manchester, said young women need safe hostels in cities and small towns, safe transport to work and enforcement of workplace sexual harassment laws.
“These are among many ideas feminist economists in India have been advocating for years. Is anyone listening?” she asked.
(Reporting by Devayani Sathyan and Veronica Khongwir; Polling by Pranoy Krishna, Rahul Trivedi and Susobhan Sarkar; Editing by Hari Kishan, Ross Finley, Alexandra Hudson)
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