India’s conversation around women’s economic participation often begins with a familiar question: How many women are working?
But employment statistics capture only one part of women’s economic lives. A woman may be outside paid employment while spending several hours each day cooking, cleaning, caring for children or supporting older family members. This work may not appear as employment in conventional labour-market statistics, but it consumes time and sustains households.
An analysis by UNFPA India in March 2026 found that female labour-force participation in India nearly doubled from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 41.7% in 2023-24. Yet, the analysis also found that much of this increase was concentrated in informal, self-employed and unpaid work, raising questions about the quality and sustainability of women’s economic participation. The latest international estimates offer another perspective. The World Bank’s Gender Data Portal, drawing on ILO modelled estimates, puts India’s female labour-force participation at 32.4% in 2025, compared with 77.6% for men. These figures use a different methodology from the PLFS-based UNFPA estimates, but both highlight the continuing gender gap in labour-market participation.
These figures measure whether women are participating in the labour market. They tell us less about what happens outside it.
The Work That Employment Statistics Don’t Capture
The distinction between paid employment and unpaid work is important because time is a finite resource. Time spent on household production and caregiving cannot simultaneously be spent in paid employment, education or other activities.
The 2024 Time Use Survey, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, shows the difference clearly. While 60.8% of men participated in employment and related activities, the corresponding figure for women was 20.7% among people aged six years and above. At the same time, women’s participation in unpaid domestic services was 81.5%, compared with 27.1% for men. The time spent on these activities is equally revealing. Women who participated in employment-related activities spent an average of 341 minutes a day on them, compared with 473 minutes for men. But women participating in unpaid domestic services spent 289 minutes per day, more than three times the 88 minutes recorded for men.
The data therefore reveals another dimension of women’s work: paid employment is only one component of the time women contribute to households and the wider economy.
When Care Becomes a Constraint
Domestic work is only one part of the care economy. Here too, the gender difference is visible.
The Time Use Survey found that 34% of women participated in unpaid caregiving, compared with 17.9% of men. Among those who participated, women spent an average of 137 minutes a day on caregiving, while men spent 75 minutes. This matters for the labour market because caregiving responsibilities can affect whether, where and how people participate in paid work. The International Labour Organization’s April 2026 analysis notes that 56% of women outside the labour force in South Asia identify care responsibilities as the primary reason for being outside the labour force. This is a regional figure, rather than an India-specific estimate, but it illustrates the broader relationship between care responsibilities and women’s participation in paid work.
The question, therefore, is not simply why women are not participating in paid employment. It is also what responsibilities are occupying their time when they are not in the labour market.
What If Care Were Counted as Economic Infrastructure?
Care is often treated as a private responsibility carried within households. But childcare, eldercare and other forms of care also enable people to study, work and participate in the economy. The ILO’s India modelling provides an indication of what could happen if care were treated as an area of economic investment. Its modelling estimates that an expanded package of early childhood care and education and long-term care policies could generate about 66 million additional jobs in India by 2035, with 72% of these jobs potentially held by women. The same modelling estimates a US$4.72 increase in GDP for every US$1 spent on early childhood care and education and related leave policies. These are modelled projections, not observed outcomes, but they illustrate why care can be considered not only a social concern but also an economic investment.
This changes the policy question. Instead of viewing childcare and other care services only as support for families, they can also be understood as infrastructure that enables people to participate in the labour market.
From Unpaid Work to Shared Responsibility
The evidence does not suggest that unpaid care work itself is a problem. Care is essential to households and societies. The challenge arises when its distribution is highly unequal and when responsibility for providing care limits the economic choices available to one group more than another.
The ILO describes both paid and unpaid care work as fundamental to the functioning of families, communities and labour markets, while highlighting the need to recognise, reduce and redistribute unpaid care responsibilities. For India, the conversation around women’s employment therefore cannot stop at creating jobs. It also requires attention to who provides childcare, who looks after older family members, how much time households spend on unpaid domestic work, and whether affordable care services are available when families need them.
Understanding women’s work requires looking not only at where women work, but also at the work that makes everything else possible. Recognising care as part of the economy changes the conversation; from simply counting women in the workforce to understanding the conditions that shape their participation. Because women’s economic contribution does not only begin when they enter the workplace.
