Women and Work in India: Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives for Policy

This book consisting of 24 chapters provides a comprehensive analysis of the complexities of women’s work in India. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary data sources it offers fresh perspectives on long-term patterns and emerging trends. It sheds light on trends in gender equality in employment, the stubbornly low Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR), the continued invisibility of women’s work, and the shortcomings of official labour force surveys in capturing women’s economic contributions. It also explores gendered labour market barriers linked to caregiving responsibilities, social group identities, and the high unemployment rates among educated women. Several chapters address persistent issues of discrimination and inequality, including how rising educational attainment among women has shaped labour market outcomes.

It critically assesses the growing sectors of childcare and gig work, often viewed as potential pathways to better-paid employment for women, highlighting both their opportunities and limitations. Further, the book provides the policy measures required to enhance women’s labour participation; challenges specific to urban contexts and key policies related to public employment and social protection for women.

This volume is a valuable resource for researchers, civil society organisations, development practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s employment. It is equally relevant for educators and students in gender studies, labour economics, employment research, and development studies.

Alakh N. Sharma is Professor and Director of the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi, India. Professor Sharma has made significant contributions to research on livelihoods, political economy, employment, labour markets, and related themes. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has led or coordinated over 50 research projects. Professor Sharma has authored, edited, or co-edited 18 books—including two volumes on gender, women, and employment—and has published more than 50 research papers in reputed journals. He is the Editor-in-chief of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics and currently serves as President of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE).

Aasha Kapur Mehta is Chairperson of the Centre for Gender Studies and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, India. Previously, she served over three decades as Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. She has been a Member of the Ad-hoc Task Force appointed by the Cabinet Secretariat to review performance targets in government ministries’ Results Framework Documents (RFDs), and was part of the Planning Commission’s Working Group of Feminist Economists for the Eleventh and Twelfth Plans. She chaired the Subgroup on “Gender Mainstreaming and Effective Accountability Mechanisms” for the Twelfth Plan and the Subgroup on Gender and Agriculture for the Eleventh Plan. Professor Mehta has served on numerous committees constituted by various Ministries of Government of India. She also led the Chronic Poverty Research Centre’s work in India. Her books, articles, and working papers address poverty and deprivation, poverty dynamics, human and gender development indicators, gender budgeting, gaps in measuring female labour force participation, paid and unpaid care work, and policy priorities for achieving SDG1 and SDG3. She co-edited ‘Poverty, Chronic Poverty and Poverty Dynamics: Policy Imperatives’, published by Springer in 2018.

Vandana Upadhyay is Professor of Economics at Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Currently, she is also the Director of the Women Studies & Research Centre (WS&RC) at the university. Her research focuses on gender, health, labour and employment, human development, migration, rural livelihoods in mountain economies and the informal sector. She was a Commonwealth Visiting Fellow, attached to the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Professor Upadhyay has an extensive body of work, including authored and edited books and numerous publications in reputed national and international journals. She co-authored ‘The Unfolding Crisis in Assam’s Tea Plantations: Employment and Occupational Mobility’ (2012) and co-edited ‘Rethinking Economic Development in North East India: The Emerging Dynamics’ (2017). Her contributions also include the Arunachal Pradesh Human Development Report (2005); the ‘Situational Analysis of Women and Girls in Arunachal Pradesh’ (National Commission for Women (NCW), 2005); the Arunachal Pradesh State Development Report (2010); the Assam Human Development Report (2016); and the NCW Gender Report on the Social, Economic and Political Empowerment of Women in North East India (2017). She served as the national coordinator for a UGC STRIDE–NITI Aayog study on the enumeration and valuation of women’s economic contribution in the Indian Himalayan region, and co-authored the published report (2022).