Unlocking India’s Next Growth Engine: Raising Women’s Workforce Participation Could Lift GDP by Up to 16%
SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth
Institutions: Ministry of Women & Child Development | Ministry of Labour & Employment
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in an article “India’s Growth Story Cannot be Written Without Its Daughters” emphasises that India’s economic ambition cannot be realised without fully integrating girls and women into the growth story, estimating that increasing women’s labour-force participation by just 10 percentage points (from ~31%) could raise India’s GDP by up to 16%.
While India has seen improvement in survival outcomes — with the sex ratio at birth rising from 896 girls per 1,000 boys (2015-17) to 917 (2021-23) — gender bias persists across the life-cycle. Roughly 460,000 girls are still “missing” at birth each year (2013-17 estimate) due to son preference, reflecting entrenched patriarchal norms, shrinking family size, and economic pressures such as dowry.
UNFPA notes that meaningful gains require shifting from “save the girl child” to “invest in the girl as a growth asset” — ensuring access to education, skills, digital literacy, mobility, safety, asset ownership, and pathways into formal employment. Regulatory enforcement (including the PCPNDT Act), norm-shifting campaigns, and integrated implementation across schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and financial-inclusion platforms remain central to ensuring that girls not only survive, but thrive and contribute to India’s productive economy.
The analysis reframes gender equality as a macro-economic growth strategy, not only a social imperative. India’s demographic advantage will be fully realised only when girls transition from improved survival to education → employability → dignified work → leadership and asset participation. Investments in gender parity directly influence labour supply, productivity, innovation, and household economic mobility — making gender inclusion a foundational pillar for Viksit Bharat 2047.
What is the PCPNDT Act?→ The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act regulates prenatal diagnostics to prevent sex-selective practices and uphold the right to equality before birth.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders:
How can India systematically move from girl-child survival to women’s workforce leadership — combining social-norm change, infrastructure for safety and mobility, skill pipelines, and targeted employment incentives to capture the estimated 16% GDP dividend?
Follow the full news here: UNFPA India – “India’s Growth Story Cannot be Written Without Its Daughters”