Women’s work is often underestimated in labour force surveys due to narrow employment definitions, gender-insensitive survey design, and biases in proxy-reporting. Because women’s economic contributions often include unpaid work, including domestic labour and caregiving, many economically active women are misclassified as inactive, limiting their visibility in official statistics and policy debates. Existing research also highlights how oversimplified methodologies in mainstream surveys lead to the misclassification of economically active women as inactive.

This study aims to address these gaps by testing innovative survey techniques such as broader employment definitions, comprehensive capturing of subsidiary activities, time-criterion measures, and parallel male surveys to capture perception biases in proxy reporting. The study was conducted in Karnataka and Jharkhand, surveying 4,000 women and 800 men. The results from the study reveal that these innovations were effective in capturing more women in employment compared to conventional surveys, offering deeper insights into their time-use patterns and highlighting the impact of perception bias in proxy reporting.

The increasing shift towards nuclear families in urban and peri-urban areas has intensified the demand for quality childcare, particularly for working women, especially those in the informal sector. This study examines the current childcare landscape in India by reviewing the policy and legislative framework alongside key government initiatives such as Saksham Anganwadi, POSHAN 2.0, and the National Creche Scheme (PALNA), as well as state-led efforts and contributions of non-profit and private actors. The study combines secondary and primary data. The first component undertakes an analysis of Union and State budget allocations for Early Childhood Development (ECD) services, with detailed state-level analysis for Delhi NCR, Haryana, Karnataka, and Kerala. The primary data component documents diverse centre-based childcare models across varied contexts and estimates their operating costs using a mixed-methods approach. By evaluating infrastructure, service delivery standards, and resource investments across models, the study assesses the financial requirements for delivering quality childcare that meets essential standards and non-negotiable components. The findings underscore the need for sustained and strategic public investment to build a robust, inclusive childcare ecosystem in India. components.

With the low female labour force participation in India being a concern for both policy-makers and researchers, the report primarily aims to unpack the demand and supply-side factors behind the low FLFP, while experimenting with modified ways to measure women’s work. Drawing on a large-scale household survey of 4,713 women across five states and an enterprise survey of 1,238 employers in Jharkhand and Karnataka, the findings from the study elaborate on both household and workplace-related factors constraining women’s participation, identify policy enablers that can support higher FLFP, and contribute to improving the measurement and recognition of women’s work in India.

As India’s digital economy expands rapidly, platform-based work has emerged as a growing source of employment, reshaping the nature of informal labour and creating new opportunities, alongside new risks for women workers. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of women’s participation in India’s platform economy, examining the opportunities and challenges experienced by women engaged in care, domestic work, beauty services, ride-sharing and delivery services across select cities. The study follows a mixed-method approach, involving a large quantitative survey of 598 workers (440 women), and qualitative interviews with workers, union representatives, platform companies, and experts. The findings show that while platform work offers an important entry point into paid employment and some gains in agency and financial inclusion, it largely reproduces the precarity of informal work in digital form. Women face income instability, high platform-related costs, limited social security, algorithmic control disguised as flexibility, unsafe working conditions, weak grievance redressal systems, and constrained avenues for skill development and upward mobility. The report underscores the need for gender-sensitive platform governance, stronger social protection, transparent contracts, and collective representation to ensure that platform work becomes a meaningful and sustainable source of employment for women.

Grounded in the recognition that women’s empowerment is central to both demographic and economic progress, this study examines the interlinkages between women’s agency, workforce participation, and fertility in the Indian context. Using a comprehensive macro–micro approach, the study constructs two composite indices at the state level- an Adaptive Human Development Index (AHDI) and an Adaptive Women’s Empowerment Index (AWEI) to analyse patterns across states and union territories. At the micro level, it draws on NFHS-5 (2019-21) data and applies Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to assess the bidirectional relationships between women’s agency, employment, and fertility, complemented by qualitative interviews with adolescent girls and young women across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi to unpack the role of gender norms. The findings reveal a strong positive association between women’s empowerment and human development, and a moderate negative correlation between empowerment and fertility at the macro level. At the micro level, employment significantly enhances women’s agency and is associated with lower fertility, while restrictive social norms, unpaid care burdens, early marriage, and limited mobility continue to constrain women’s choices. By combining rigorous quantitative modelling with grounded qualitative insights, the study provides compelling evidence that strategic investments in women’s education, economic participation, reproductive autonomy, and leadership are essential to unlocking India’s demographic dividend and advancing inclusive development.

Since 2021, the Women and Work Trends series has documented the evolving contours of women’s workforce participation in India amid shifting economic and policy landscapes. Beginning with an assessment of post-pandemic recovery and changing employment patterns in 2022, and expanding in 2023 to situate women’s work within the broader agenda of women-led development during India’s G20 presidency, the series has consistently tracked structural barriers, emerging opportunities, and policy priorities. The 2024 report examines key trends, policy developments, and emerging challenges shaping women’s engagement with work. Drawing on secondary data as well as insights from IWWAGE and LEAD’s research, it maps and visualises the current and future landscape of women’s work in India, offering a forward-looking perspective on the pathways to greater inclusion and economic agency.

As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of flexible work arrangements, hybrid working models have emerged as a potential pathway to expand women’s employment opportunities beyond traditional in-person roles. This rapid assessment examines how women professionals adapted to hybrid work during and after the pandemic, examining its perceived benefits and challenges. Drawing on survey data from 400 working women alongside a case study from a rural BPO in Uttarakhand, the study provides timely insights into the gendered realities of hybrid work and its implications for women’s workforce participation in India. With a young sample (average age 27) spanning metropolitan and non-metropolitan locations and sectors such as technology, social services, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications, the study finds that hybrid work offers benefits, including improved financial management, reduced commuting costs, and increased workplace motivation. However, the findings highlight persistent challenges: technological skill gaps, inadequate home infrastructure, weakened organisational culture, perceived disadvantages in promotions and networking, and continued gendered burdens of care. The report underscores the need for stronger digital infrastructure, gender-equitable pay and promotion systems, inclusion of hybrid work in labour regulations, workplace safety safeguards, and systematic collection of gender-disaggregated data to ensure that hybrid models meaningfully enhance women’s workforce participation and retention.

Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) is a crucial measure of women’s economic empowerment and agency. Despite economic growth, lower fertility, and rising education, women’s participation in the labour force remains low and uneven across states and rural–urban areas. Coupled with the disproportionate burden of unpaid work, this underscores the need for closer, state-level analysis of women’s employment in India.

Women’s Workforce Participation in India: State-wise Trends is an IWWAGE factsheet series that presents key insights into women’s employment across Indian states. Drawing on data from the Periodic Labour Force Surveys 2017–18 onwards, the series tracks changes in women’s workforce participation rates. The factsheet also tracks shifts in the composition of women’s work across employment types (self-employed, regular wage, casual labour), reveals persistent gendered barriers to decent work and social protection, and points to the high prevalence of informal and low-security employment among women workers. By presenting state-specific trends in participation rates, sectoral distribution, and types of employment, the series offers valuable insights for policymakers to tailor strategies that support inclusive and meaningful economic engagement of women across regions.

Unmet childcare needs are widely recognised as a critical constraint to women’s labour force participation, particularly for low-income women who face a “double burden” of paid work and unpaid care responsibilities. This study serves as part of a long-term inquiry into Early Childhood Development (ECD) in remote tribal areas. The study examined existing childcare arrangements before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns and assessed their implications for maternal employment. The study sample comprised women from five districts across four states: Tapi and Sabarkantha in Gujarat, Kandhamal in Odisha, Trivandrum in Kerala, and East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya. The survey focused on mothers aged 18–45 with at least one child aged 0–6 years. Findings reveal a significant deficit in accessible, quality childcare: 45 per cent of women were engaged in paid work, yet 67 per cent relied on informal childcare arrangements and 41 per cent skipped work due to care responsibilities. Most respondents expressed willingness to use free, centre-based facilities offering safe environments, nutrition, and early learning, and highlighted the importance of strengthening Anganwadi Centres through improved infrastructure, extended hours, and greater public investment. Overall, the study underscores the urgent need for affordable, quality childcare to reduce women’s unpaid care burden and support sustained labour force participation.

Against the backdrop of India’s rapidly expanding digital gig economy, this study examines women’s engagement in platform work, focusing on women service providers associated with Urban Company in the beauty and wellness segment. Using a mixed-methods approach—including a survey of 88 women workers in Delhi NCR and Mumbai, Focus Group Discussions, and Key Informant Interviews, the study analyses labour practices, earnings, and working conditions. Findings show that while platform work offers flexibility and income opportunities, especially for urban women, it is marked by limited social protection, safety concerns, weak bargaining power, and algorithmic control, underscoring the need for stronger policy and platform accountability to ensure decent work conditions.