Women’s workforce participation sees significant surge; rural India takes the lead

India has witnessed an increase in female workforce participation rate.

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), women's employment rate grew from 22% in 2017-18 to 40.3% in 2023-24, while the unemployment rate dropped from 5.6% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24.

This reflects positive growth in employment opportunities for women, the Ministry of Labour & Employment highlighted.

The rise in women’s employment has been especially pronounced in rural India, where female employment has surged by 96%. In comparison, urban areas have recorded a 43% increase during the same period.

There is also steady progress in women’s employability. The employability of female graduates has grown from 42% in 2013 to 47.53% in 2024, while the worker population ratio among women with postgraduate education and above has risen from 34.5% in 2017-18 to 40% in 2023-24.

The India Skills Report 2025 projects that nearly 55% of Indian graduates will be globally employable in 2025, up from 51.2% in 2024. Complementing this trend, EPFO (Employees Provident Fund Organisation) payroll data underscores women’s increasing presence in the formal workforce, with 1.56 crore women joining in the last seven years.

At the same time, over 16.69 crore women have registered as unorganised workers on the e-Shram portal (as of August), enabling access to a range of social welfare schemes provided by the Government of India.

At the national level, 70 central schemes across 15 ministries and more than 400 state-level schemes focus on supporting female entrepreneurship. PLFS data shows that female self-employment grew by 30%, from 51.9% in 2017-18 to 67.4% in 2023-24.

Gender budgets have increased by 429% in the last decade, rising from ₹0.85 lakh crore in FY2013-14 to Rs. 4.49 lakh crore in FY2025-26.

Programmes such as Startup India have fostered a thriving ecosystem, with nearly 50% of DPIIT ( Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) registered startups having at least one woman director i.e., 74,410 out of over 1.54 lakh.

Today around 2 crore women have become lakhpati didis. Flagship programmes such as Namo Drone Didi and Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – NRLM are playing a crucial role in this transformation, equipping women with resources and opportunities needed to drive sustainable progress.

Women have received 68% of the total MUDRA loans and under the PM SVANidhi scheme that empowers street vendors; around 44% beneficiaries are women.

Additionally, women-led MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) have emerged as key drivers of economic expansion, generating over 89 lakh additional jobs for women from FY21 to FY23.