New Delhi: ACCESS Development Services has launched the 18th edition of the State of India’s Livelihoods (SOIL) Report, focusing on women’s economic empowerment as a key driver to take India toward sustainable growth and its ambitious vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047. The annual publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping India’s livelihoods landscape, and this year’s edition makes a compelling case for empowering women as agents of transformation in the economy.
It points out that the importance of women’s workforce participation is critical to achieving inclusive growth and that although some progress has been made-for instance, the LFPR of women increased to 37 percent in 2022-23, systemic issues still exist, including gender wage gaps, unequal access to resources, and the burden of unpaid care work, which restrict women from reaching their full economic potential.
The report highlights the over-reliance on women in agriculture, who carry out more than 75 percent of primary crop production tasks. Women farmers are also subjected to increased challenges by climate shocks and unequal access to resources. The report advocates for a gender-responsive approach to climate-smart agriculture, which it says could unlock significant economic and social gains.
Another important observation is that women are the majority in self-employment, especially in rural areas, where they account for 67.8 percent of the self-employed workforce. Scaling these businesses, however, remains a challenge because of limited access to finance, markets, and other critical resources. The report further observes that women entrepreneurs not only contribute significantly to the economy but also hire more female workers, thus underlining the need for targeted policies to support their growth and sustainability.
The report brings to attention a pressing concern, which remains a significant bottleneck in women’s participation in the workforce: uneven distribution of unpaid care work. In India, women do four times more unpaid care work compared to men and, therefore cannot pursue paid employment or entrepreneurship to a larger extent. According to this report, there is an opportunity to create up to 300 million jobs around the world through investments in the care economy, and those primarily benefiting will be women.
It also reflects the poor representation of women-owned enterprises in public and private sector procurement supply chains, which are the focal areas of the policy incentives offered. Strategic market interventions will empower women entrepreneurs to scale their operations and expand their access to the market, essential for fostering inclusive economic growth.
In addressing these systemic challenges, the report calls for a multi-stakeholder approach to dismantle structural barriers and promote women’s economic participation. It offers a roadmap for closing financing gaps for women-led businesses, promoting gender-responsive agricultural policies, and investing in care infrastructure to alleviate the burden of unpaid care work. Enhancing market access through inclusive procurement strategies is also identified as a crucial step toward enabling women entrepreneurs to thrive.
Vipin Sharma, CEO, ACCESS Development Services, underlined the importance of these efforts when he said, “Women’s economic empowerment is not just a moral imperative; it is India’s growth imperative. Women in India are driving significant economic contributions, despite systemic challenges, especially in agriculture and entrepreneurship. We must create enabling ecosystems that give access to finance, markets, and care infrastructure to unlock their full potential.”. This report shall serve as a roadmap for policymakers, businesses, and civil society to work collectively towards fostering inclusive and sustainable development.
The SOIL report becomes a very crucial source of information for policymakers, researchers, and advocates working on the agenda for gender equality and sustainable livelihoods. By offering actionable insights and recommendations, it catalyzes efforts to empower women in India’s economic landscape as drivers of inclusive growth and sustainable development.
In the analysis and recommendations, the report presents a convincing case for mainstreaming women’s economic empowerment in India’s larger development strategies. It calls for immediate, coordinated action by policymakers, businesses, and civil society to dismantle barriers and create a supportive environment that will enable women to contribute meaningfully to the economy. This report reiterates that gender equality is not only a social objective but an economic imperative for India as it approaches its 2047 vision.