The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been heavily invested in the goal to make India a developed economy by 2047. It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s developmental and political slogan that he seems to be intensely engaged with. The government’s vision has put women as the axis on whose development and participation the required economic growth would be achieved. In fact, the government has said that women will drive India into the club of developed economies.
Why women? The reason is the hard fact that women remain largely absent from India’s labour force. Around 60 per cent of working-age women (aged 15-59) are outside the labour force. It is an economic blockage. Studies, including one by International Monetary Fund (IMF), show that raising women participation in the labour force to the level of men could lift India’s gross domestic product by over 25 per cent. Countries that have achieved high women participation also report high household incomes, as in the US in the mid-20th century.
Notwithstanding some encouraging signs in growing women participation in the labour force in recent quarters of the fiscal year 2025-26, it remains a challenge. Women are overwhelmed with unpaid domestic and care responsibilities and shoulder the burden as a discriminatory social norm. While they take up significant responsibilities for activities that contribute to a household’s economy, they are unpaid and called to participate more as labour support. For India, women work force is critical to encash its demographic dividend. Economic Survey 2025-26 projects that India’s working-age population will reach 980 million by 2035, with the demographic dividend peaking around 2030. Women will account for roughly half of this cohort. So, if women remain excluded from paid work force, the dividend will simply not be realised.
This is where the developed India pathway hits a roadblock. Women are in fact more burdened with work and responsibilities, though not according to the formal economic conditions. According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) “Time Use Survey”, on “employment and related activities”, men spend nearly 61 per cent of a day, while women just 20.7 per cent. So, women spend only one-fifth of their time doing paid work. On “unpaid domestic services for household members”, women spend 81.5 per cent of their time while men spend just 27 per cent. On “unpaid caregiving for household members”, women spend 34 per cent of time while men just around 18 per cent. On “production of goods for own final use”, women spend nearly 21 per cent of time in comparison to men’s 13 per cent.
This imbalance is set to worsen as India ages. With the fertility rate dropping, India will soon be a country with more old people needing care. Going by the current distribution of work and responsibilities, more women will be assigned to this unpaid work, thus further limiting their contribution to the formal economy. NSO’s earlier survey already points at women being increasingly drafted to care-giving works. On caregiving for household members, women spend much more time in 2024 than in 2019: from 27.6 per cent to 34 per cent in 2024. Economic Survey 2025-26 also says that the findings of the “Time Use Survey” highlight the dual burden that female workers face in terms of caregiving activities and unpaid work, which may explain their desirability or inclination towards flexible work models.
This brings into focus the challenge of making the job ecosystem favourable for women. For example, making part-time work regulated and formalised like in many developed economies. Similarly, and most importantly, unshackling the social norms that have kept women restrained to certain duties and to remain unpaid for those.
This article was originally published in the February 16-28, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth