Initial data on employment at the district level in India indicates that women are more likely to find jobs where they have fewer choices, and less likely to find jobs where the available vacancies do not match their lifestyle. Journalists conducted an investigation in six districts representing the extremes of two labor markets.
Overall, in 396 out of 584 surveyed districts, less than half of the women participate in the labor market. No such districts were identified for men.
Choose any district in India.
In rural Gujarat, a tribal area, over 82 out of every 100 women are employed or seeking work, whereas this figure is less than 10 percent in North East Delhi.
Nowhere do women match men.
Mandi in Himachal Pradesh has the closest indicator, where the proportion of women in the labor market (69.6%) differs from the proportion of men (74.2%) by the smallest gap. Reporters visited six districts located at opposite ends of three indicators: the number of women in the labor market, the number of young women who are neither working nor studying, and the improvement in the status of young women compared to women in general.
Three questions, two poles for each
The districts included in the profile were selected from the top and bottom of the rankings; Delhi was excluded when compiling the rankings.
Women in the job market
The share of women aged 15 and older who are working or seeking work reaches 82.1% in the tribal belt of Gujarat—the highest figure in India. Meanwhile, in Yamunanagar, Haryana, this figure is only 10.0%, and only North East Delhi (9.8%) is lower.
The gap between regions is most noticeable in villages: 86.5% of rural women in the Gujarat belt are in the labor market, compared to 7.2% in rural Yamunanagar. In towns of the Gujarat belt, this percentage drops to 37.1%. If only those women who worked or sought work in the week before the survey are considered, the figure in the Gujarat belt falls from 82.1% to 57.7%, indicating seasonality of employment related to the agricultural cycle.
Anita Tadvi, a 25-year-old resident, works as a driver and guide at the Statue of Unity in Ekta Nagar. Her job is related to the influx of tourists to the world's tallest statue, which became possible after the opening of Sardar Patel's monument in 2018. The first Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of India, published in September, recorded the highest level of female labour force participation in the country—82.1% in the Dahod-Narmada-Dang-Tapi-Chhota Udaipur-Mahisagar belt. The rural figure was even higher, at 86.5%, suggesting that the rural economy contributes to this outstanding result.
In these areas, women work for several reasons: households require dual incomes, men migrate for work, farms and livestock need family labour, and also due to government programs, NGOs, and self-help groups that have opened small sources of livelihood. Swati Bedekar, an entrepreneur from Vadodara, notes that women in the tribal belt are productive and earn more than men, while balancing outside work with household duties, leaving them little free time.
Dinesh Patel, a farmer from the Mahisagar district, reported that many women work as agricultural labourers and can be hired from the labor market. He prefers hiring women because they are productive and dedicated, and noted that it is easy for women to find work in agriculture in their area. However, a high participation rate does not guarantee job stability.
Madhu Gayakwad, head of the Sociology Department at VNS in Danga, emphasized that although employment opportunities for women have increased, they remain uneven, and there is potential to improve living conditions. According to the PLFS, women in tribal Gujarat are working, but the next goal is to ensure the sustainability of this income to change their lives.
In Yamunanagar, despite the presence of factories, nine out of ten women remain outside the labor market. The district is saturated with production facilities, including plywood workshops, paper and sugar mills, and manufacturing enterprises. However, Alka Mehta, a homemaker, believes that most of this work is too physically demanding for women like her, stating that 'women cannot work there because the factories require heavy and skilled labour.'
This gap between job offers in Yamunanagar and what local women are willing to do may explain one of the sharpest findings of the PLFS: only 10% of women aged 15 and older in this district are working or seeking work—the lowest female labour force participation rate (LFPR) outside of Delhi. The problem is not simply a lack of jobs.
In brick kilns in the district, women make up about half of the workforce, but most of them are migrants from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam. Women who find paid work are usually concentrated in other sectors—schools, colleges, government institutions, shops, and other service sectors.
Education is not an obvious missing link, as in 2023-24, women made up about two-thirds of students in general arts and science colleges in Yamunanagar. Nevertheless, educated women prefer government service, education, and the private sector, including IT, software, and business, according to Municipal Commissioner of Yamunanagar-Jagadhri, Suman Bahmani. This choice significantly narrows the scope of search in the industrially oriented district based on manual and factory work.
Locals note that women much more often choose work in 'business, shops, schools, colleges, and other service activities' rather than heavy labour due to its physical strain. For many families, another reason why women remain outside the labor market is that they can afford it. Homemaker Geeta Arora explained her choice: 'My husband earns well, so I don't need to work. I take care of things at home and dedicate time to childcare.'
Jobs exist, but for many women in Yamunanagar, it is not the work they envision for themselves. The situation in Delhi is even worse: six of the ten lowest districts by this indicator are in Delhi, and no Delhi district reaches 19%.
Neither working nor studying
The share of young women (15–29 years old) who are unemployed, not in school, and not in training is 73.9% in Kendrapara, Odisha—the highest figure in India. Meanwhile, in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, this figure is only 2.8%, the lowest among all, although this estimate is based on a small sample.
Young women in Chamba are actively engaged: 70.7% of women in this district are working, with most of this labour being on family farms. In Kendrapara, this figure is 28.6%.
Working, yes. But mostly on the family farm
In Sadal Panchayat of Chamba, almost every girl now attends school or college, according to Panchayat head Pritam Singh. However, the problem arises after graduation. He notes: 'Without industry and extremely rare government sector vacancies, educated women have no viable choice but to return to the fields to help their families with manual agricultural labour.'
This gap between being counted as employed and having stable work helps explain one of the most striking results of the PLFS. Chamba has one of the lowest NEET rates among youth in the country—only 2.8% of women aged 15-29 are unemployed, not in school, and not in training—alongside a high female labour force participation rate of 70.7%. Locally, most of this participation is linked to agriculture, often on family farms, in a region where formal employment is scarce.
Kulbushan Upmanyu, president of the social action group 'Himalaya Niti Abhiyan', stated that the predominance of agriculture in the local economy means that female participation, including work on family farms and related activities, equals male participation. However, he warned that this participation should not be considered evidence of good employment. According to him, subsistence farming often yields too little income to be considered a viable livelihood. He added that in some places, fields remain uncultivated because farming no longer yields profit.
For young women, education is another part of the PLFS story. In the district, access to schools has improved, and technical institutes (ITI), colleges, and skill development programs have expanded, allowing many girls and young women to stay in education longer and reducing the NEET rate. The difficulty lies in converting education into jobs. Although formal employment opportunities in Chamba are limited, tourism is concentrated in places like Dalhousie, Barmur, and Pangi, and remains seasonal. However, a more important transition is yet to come—turning education and labour force participation into paid work.
In Kendrapara, Odisha, the picture for young women looks bleak: 73.9% of people aged 15 to 29 are unemployed, not in school, and not in training. Like Gayatri, poverty forces girls into unpaid domestic work. Some wait for marriage, while others may migrate for work, which is not reflected in local employment statistics. In Pattamunda, about 30 km away, 22-year-old Monalisa Lenka has been at home for over a year after finishing school because she could not find a local training program that could improve her chances of employment. She noted that 'the only options here are sewing or mat making.'
