One of the drivers of Viksit Bharat will be manufacturing. One of the pillars of Viksit Bharat is ‘nari (women)’. However, women are missing from the factory floors. The share of women in India’s formal manufacturing sector fell from 20.9% in 2015-16 to 18.9% in 2022-23 (1.57 million out of 8.34 million formal workers). What is even more striking is that of all the women working in manufacturing, Tamil Nadu alone is employing 41%.
In informal manufacturing, women form 43% of the workforce. Therefore, it is not the case that women are not working, but that they are not getting the “better” jobs. This again points to informalisation and the low paying nature of jobs held by women.
Manufacturing contributes almost one-fifth of India’s GDP. It is poised to be a key growth driver for India. Yet the participation of women in this sector remains low. Compared to other developing economies such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, India lags behind.
Tamil Nadu, which employs the largest chunk of the formal female workforce, and four other States make up almost three-quarters of India’s total. This implies that five States are responsible for most of the formal female manufacturing workforce (Chart 1a).
Similarly, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra contribute close to 50% of the informal women workforce in the manufacturing sector (Chart 1b).
Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana have the highest gender gap (Chart 2) in the formal manufacturing workforce, with women making up less than 6% of the workforce.
Chart 2: Gender gap in formal and informal manufacturing. In the graph, the higher the positive number, the higher the gender gap, the lower the positive number, the lower the gender gap. Negative numbers correspond to more women working in the sector than men
Moreover, even highly industrialised States such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, and U.P. have a high gender disparity in the formal manufacturing sector. Women make up less than 15% of the workforce in these States.
There is significant homogeneity across industries in which women are employed within the formal and informal sector. For instance, within the formal sector, 60% are employed in textile, wearing apparel, and food processing (Chart 3A). Within the informal sector, wearing apparel and tobacco sectors are the major employers of women (Chart 3B).
Chart 3a: Sector-wise share of women in the formal workforce
Chart 3b: Sector-wise share of women in the informal workforce
Within the formal sector, tobacco is the only industry where more women than men are employed. In the informal tobacco industry, more than 90% are women.
Thus, women in India are mostly concentrated in the inform0al sector, which is low paying and offers a poor standard of working. Therefore, it is important to transition women from the informal to the formal sector to ensure a decent pay and work environment.
Given the high degree of informality, and lack of heterogeneity in the manufacturing workforce for women, the first step to boost participation is skill training. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey, about 6% of women in the sector have either formal vocational training or training on the job. Hence, upskilling women is imperative to improve both participation and productivity.
Second, it is essential that women complete their higher education, which could improve their chances of being employed in manufacturing. Nearly 47% of men in manufacturing have completed secondary education or higher, compared to just 30% of women.
Third, there is an immediate need for greater sectoral diversification. Lastly, it is salient to make work environments safe to improve workforce participation.
For instance, Tamil Nadu initiated the ‘Thozhi’ scheme under which it built working women hostels. Such specific interventions are needed in each State to address their unique challenges.
Data was sourced from the PLFS and the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises
Shabana Mitra, Cledwyn Fernandez and Anjhana Ramesh are researchers at ICRIER
Published – April 17, 2025 08:00 am IST
