India is prospering, but its women are leaving the workforce

The Indian economy has grown more than 10 times since 1990, its female workforce participation has fallen from 30 per cent in 1990 to 19 per cent as of 2021. The fall has been particularly steep in the past 15 years when female labour participation plunged from 32 per cent in 2005 to 19 per cent in 2021, shows World Bank data. During that time, the economy nearly quadrupled.

“At the individual level, I find that there is a lot more confidence in the youth and a lot more confidence in the women now,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and Chairman of Axilor Ventures.

The 300 million women of the millennial-GenZ cohort, which is now well into the workforce, tend to come with more advantages and different priorities than their predecessors. As individuals, they are seen as being more educated, financially independent, digitally and financially savvier, and more career-oriented. “Two good things have happened recently. The younger women are a lot more aspirational, and now there is the advantage of a flexible work system or work-from-home,” said Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund, and a millennial.

Yet, despite India’s growing economic prosperity, the larger picture is very different.

“When I started my career in 1991, for every two men who were educated, we had one woman who was educated. The percentage of women in the workforce was about 30 per cent and we thought that it was only a matter of time before it would become 50 per cent. But we know the results don’t justify that optimism today,” said Prasenjit Bhattacharya, Founder Director of Great Place to Work in India.

Interestingly, India offers its women educational attainment nearly equal to that of its men, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2022. But the chasm widens when it comes to economic participation. Sample this data from the report released in July 2022. Where 1 refers to parity between men and women, Indian women scored 0.961 in educational attainment, but the score plummeted to 0.350 for economic participation and opportunity.

The dichotomy between the patriarchal Indian society and its aspirational individual woman is stark where the pixels look way better than the painting. India ranks a lowly 135th of 146 countries in WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index for 2022, but a small consolation is that the country climbed up five spots as compared to 2021.

It’s too big and deep a problem to be solved in the business context alone and requires larger societal changes, say thought leaders. Besides, just focussing on women without focussing on job creation is not a very good strategy, said Bhattacharya. “There have to be many, many more jobs,” he said.

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