Family and Society · Sub-pillar 7.2

Women's participation and safety

Women's participation in work and leadership, the unpaid care work that keeps many out of paid work, girls being welcomed at birth, and freedom from violence and harassment.

What is women's participation and safety?

Women's participation and safety is sub-pillar 7.2 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the second of six sub-pillars under the Family and Society pillar. It asks whether women take part fully in work and leadership, how much unpaid care work keeps them out of paid work, whether girls are welcomed at birth, and whether women are free from violence and harassment.

Why it matters for 2047

No country has become developed with half its people on the sidelines. Women's participation in paid work is among the lowest in the world for a country of India's income, and the difference between where it is and where it could be is worth more than any single reform. The talent is there; the hours are taken by unpaid care.

Safety is the precondition. A woman who cannot travel, work late or live alone without fear is not free to participate however many laws protect her on paper. Violence inside the home, reported by one married woman in five, and harassment outside it set the real limits of women's lives.

The welcome at birth is the first test. India's sex ratio at birth remains among the most skewed in the world, a sign that some families still prefer sons strongly enough to act on it. A developed Bharat is one in which a daughter is wanted as much as a son, and the statistics show it.

Where India stands

  • 40.0%

    of Indian women aged 15 and above were in the labour force in 2025, against 79.1% of men: 45.9% in villages and 27.7% in cities, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey. Women's rates have risen since the late 2010s but remain far below men's.[1]

  • 289 minutes

    a day is what women aged six and above who do unpaid domestic work spend on it, against 88 minutes for men; 81.5% of women and 27.1% of men do such work on a given day, and women who give unpaid care spend 137 minutes against 75 for men, according to the Time Use Survey 2024.[2]

  • 917

    girls were born for every 1,000 boys in 2021-23 according to the Sample Registration System, against a natural ratio of about 950; the ratio ranged from 974 in Chhattisgarh to 868 in Uttarakhand.[3]

  • 22.3%

    of married women aged 18 to 49 had experienced spousal violence in 2023-24, down from 29.2% in 2019-21; 4.41 lakh crimes against women were registered with the police in 2024, with cruelty by husbands and relatives the largest category.[4][5]

Women's lives have changed fastest in what they own and control. 89% of women now have a bank account they use themselves and 63.6% a mobile phone, child marriage has halved in two decades, and reported spousal violence has fallen by a quarter in four years. [4][6] Women's labour force participation has climbed from its low point of the late 2010s, mostly through rural self-employment. [1]

The structural gaps remain. Two in five women are in the labour force against four in five men, and the gap is widest in the cities where the jobs are. [1] Women do more than three times the unpaid domestic work of men, which is where the missing hours go. [2] One married woman in five reports violence from her husband, over four lakh crimes against women are registered a year, and 33 fewer girls are born per thousand boys than nature would produce. [3][4][5]

A note on the numbers: the 2025 labour force figures use a redesigned survey and are not strictly comparable with earlier years; the Time Use Survey measures minutes among those who do an activity, so the gap in total hours is larger than the per-participant gap; the sex ratio at birth is a three-year pooled estimate from the Sample Registration System; spousal violence is self-reported to a survey and under-reported, while police figures count registrations and rise with willingness to report; women's share in leadership is not yet on this page because 47 BH has not settled on one measure, and will add it.

On the 47 BH report card

Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:

  • Female labour force participation rate, rural and urban (PLFS).
  • Women's daily hours of unpaid domestic and care work versus men's (Time Use Survey).
  • Sex ratio at birth (Sample Registration System).
  • Share of women reporting spousal violence (NFHS) and crimes against women registered (NCRB).

Two lenses on women's participation and safety

City and village

47 BH asks why a woman in a village is more likely to be in the labour force than a woman in a city, and whether that reflects opportunity or necessity. Rural women work on farms and in family enterprises, often unpaid; urban women face the sharper choice between a job and the care no one else will do, and the longer, less safe journey to work.

Learn, avoid, protect

Learn
What can India learn from countries that raised women's employment by building childcare and elder care, that made public transport and streets safe enough for women to use at any hour, and that changed the preference for sons within a generation?
Avoid
Which mistakes should it avoid, such as counting women's unpaid work as participation to flatter the figures, treating safety as a matter of CCTV and curfews on women rather than of consequences for men, or letting the sex ratio drift back as scanning technology spreads?
Protect
What of its own should it protect, such as the self-help groups that have brought crores of rural women into finance and enterprise, the reservation for women in panchayats that has produced more than a million elected women, and the extended families that make women's work possible when they share the care?

What this sub-pillar does not cover

Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:

Questions about women's participation and safety

How many Indian women work?

40.0% of women aged 15 and above were in the labour force in 2025 against 79.1% of men, 45.9% in rural and 27.7% in urban areas, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey. [1]

How much unpaid work do Indian women do?

Women who do unpaid domestic work spend 289 minutes a day on it against 88 for men, and 81.5% of women do it on a given day against 27.1% of men; women caregivers spend 137 minutes against 75 for men, according to the Time Use Survey 2024. [2]

What is India's sex ratio at birth?

917 girls per 1,000 boys in 2021-23, according to the Sample Registration System, against a natural ratio of about 950; Chhattisgarh was highest at 974 and Uttarakhand lowest at 868. [3]

How safe are women in India?

22.3% of married women aged 18 to 49 reported spousal violence in 2023-24, down from 29.2% in 2019-21, according to NFHS-6; the police registered 4.41 lakh crimes against women in 2024, 1.5% fewer than in 2023, with cruelty by husbands and relatives the largest category. [4][5]

Why is women's participation a development question?

Because it is the largest untapped resource India has. A country that frees women's hours from unpaid care, makes its streets and homes safe and welcomes every daughter at birth would add more to its prosperity than any trade deal, and would be fairer besides.

Sources

  1. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, "Press note on Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report, 2025", March 2026. https://www.mospi.gov.in/uploads/latestReleases/latest_release_1774607827733_3e8964a9-268b-4cc9-ad65-cfc8a9e32f08_Press_note_AR_PLFS_2025_23032025_V2.1_26032026_final.pdf
  2. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, "Time Use Survey 2024", press release, 25 February 2025. https://mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/PR_TUS_25022025.pdf
  3. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, "Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2023", September 2025; headline figures as summarised by Drishti IAS. https://www.drishtiias.com/pdf/1757151696.pdf
  4. National Family Health Survey-6 (2023-24) findings on child marriage and spousal violence, as reported by HumanProgress citing The Economic Times, 2026. https://humanprogress.org/india-records-progress-against-child-marriage-gender-violence/
  5. National Crime Records Bureau, "Crime in India 2024", 2026; figures on crimes against women as summarised by Khan Global Studies. Report: ncrb.gov.in/crime-in-india.html. https://currentaffairs.khanglobalstudies.com/crime-in-india-2024-report/
  6. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, "Union Health Ministry Releases National Family Health Survey - 6", Press Information Bureau, 29 May 2026 (women's bank accounts and mobile phones). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2266600&reg=3&lang=1

47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.

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