Climbing the Ladder of Change ITC’s Programme on Transforming Women’s Livelihoods in Urban India
Climbing the Ladder of Change ITC’s Programme on Transforming Women’s Livelihoods in Urban India
Author : Riya Gupta, Samraggi Roy
December 12, 2025
India, home to 1.4 billion people, nearly half of them women (48.4 percent), is among the
world’s fastest-growing economies. With annual economic growth averaging 6–7 percent,
the country has made significant improvements in healthcare, education, and other human
development indicators.1
Yet, the issue of low female labour force participation continues
to persist. Among urban women, participation has risen only modestly, from 20.4 percent in
2017–18 to 25.4 percent in 2023–242
. Deep-rooted conservative norms restricting women’s
mobility and agency, coupled with the burden of unpaid domestic and care work, remain as
barriers. Those who enter the workforce are typically confined to informal, low-skilled, and
poorly paid jobs.
Several factors lie behind the continuing challenges: more young women are staying enrolled
in secondary and higher education; however, the shortage of stable and meaningful job
opportunities often discourages them from seeking work, a pattern sometimes described as
the ‘discouraged worker effect’.3
At the same time, entrenched social norms and expectations
around caregiving and domestic work further constrains women’s choices, particularly in rural
areas.
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