For a long time, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs aimed at women focused on traditional topics such as training, scholarships, mutual support groups, and entrepreneurship. However, a more fundamental barrier is becoming increasingly apparent: women cannot fully participate in the economy if they bear a disproportionately large share of unpaid care work.
According to the India Time Use Survey for 2024, 81.5% of women aged six and over engaged in unpaid domestic work daily, compared to 27.1% of men. Women who participated in this work spent an average of 289 minutes per day, while men spent 88 minutes. This gap is also observed in unpaid care: 34% of women participated in it versus 17.9% of men.
The economic consequences of this imbalance are clear. The female labor force participation rate in India was 40% in 2025, while this figure reached 79.1% for men. Among women not in the workforce, 44.4% cited childcare or household duties as the main reason.
This is changing the private sector's approach to inclusivity. Instead of limiting themselves to issues of education or hiring more women, CSR programs can address the problems that prevent them from starting and continuing paid work.
Women continue to take on a significantly larger share of unpaid domestic and care work than men, which affects labor force participation and is increasingly being addressed through CSR initiatives focused on childcare, livelihoods, and inclusion.
Childcare is an obvious starting point. The government's Palna scheme provides daycare services for children from six months to six years old, including early stimulation, preschool education, nutrition, and medical care. By March 2025, 11,395 Anganwadi-cum-creches were approved across states and territories, although only 1,761 of them were operational.
This gap opens opportunities for partnerships between the corporate sector and civil society. Vedanta's Nand Ghar initiative is one example. Mobile crèches offer another model combining childcare with support for children from marginalized communities.
The importance of such programs lies in the fact that childcare should not be viewed solely as a social welfare service. It can act as economic infrastructure. If reliable childcare frees up women's time, the next question is whether that time transforms into income, assets, and greater economic independence.
This is where CSR livelihood programs can interact with care interventions. For instance, the Mann Deshi Foundation reports that since 2012, it has supported over a million women, 900,000 of whom have been reached through its women's business schools. Data for 2024–25 shows that 94% of trained women reported an increase in average monthly income, with an average growth of 56%, and 76% gained asset ownership. Its Rural Trade Council for Women reports reaching 130,000 women for financial linkages, with the average monthly income increasing from 4,300 to 15,296 rupees.
The lesson for CSR is important. Educating women without considering time constraints, access to finance, and the ability to reach markets can yield limited results. A more comprehensive intervention combines childcare and care services with education, credit, entrepreneurship, market access, and asset ownership.
The same principle applies to the inclusion of people with disabilities. Organizations operating under the umbrella of CSR are increasingly helping to shift disability programs from the realm of charity to employment and economic participation. Other CSR and civil society partnerships remove livelihood barriers among vulnerable groups.
The conclusion is a broader understanding of inclusivity. Women cannot simply have their rights expanded by handing them a certificate of education. A person with a disability cannot be included just by providing an assistive device. A migrant cannot be protected merely by registration on a government portal. Effective social investments must eliminate obstacles between a person and economic participation: care, mobility, documentation, accessibility, skills, credit, and employment. For CSR, this means moving from funding individual interventions to building pathways. The possibilities are vast.