Context:

·       India’s economic progress is closely tied to the full inclusion of women in its workforce. Currently, women contribute merely 18% to the nation’s GDP, while nearly 196 million employable women remain outside the labor market. Although the overall labor force participation rate has increased to 41.7%, only 18% of women hold formal employment positions. Without making women’s economic opportunities visible, measurable, and actionable across all sectors of governance, India risks losing out on trillions of dollars and falling short of its ambitious target of becoming a $30 trillion economy by 2047.

·       This article underscores the critical role women’s inclusion plays in achieving India’s economic aspirations, focusing on the significance of the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index and the urgent need to mainstream gender-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive budgeting as drivers of systemic reform and inclusive growth.

Women’s Economic Empowerment Index: Applying a Gender Perspective to Policy

·       Uttar Pradesh has pioneered the introduction of India’s first Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Index, a district-level metric designed to monitor women''s engagement in five key domains: employment, education and skills development, entrepreneurship, livelihood and mobility, and safety and infrastructure. The true strength of this index lies in its ability to incorporate a gender perspective into governance, revealing disparities that are often obscured in broader datasets related to health, economy, or infrastructure.

·       For example, detailed findings from the transportation sector exposed the significantly low number of women employed as bus staff, which led to targeted reforms in recruitment processes as well as improvements in infrastructure, such as the provision of women’s restrooms. The index also identifies systemic obstacles; although women constitute over half of those enrolled in skill development programs, only a small fraction successfully transition into entrepreneurship or obtain credit. By bringing these bottlenecks to light, the WEE Index shifts the focus beyond mere participation statistics toward deep-rooted reforms, providing a blueprint for more inclusive policymaking.

Universalizing Gender Data and Gender-Sensitive Budgeting

·       To effectively bridge India’s gender gaps, it is essential to integrate gender-disaggregated data into all government departments—from Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to housing—and to equip local authorities with the capacity to leverage this data for formulating targeted action plans. Beyond simple headcounts, data collection must encompass metrics such as women’s retention rates, leadership representation, re-entry into the workforce, and the quality of jobs, particularly during critical transition phases following schooling and higher education, where dropout rates among women remain high.

·       Equally important is the redefinition of gender budgeting. Rather than confining gender budgeting solely to welfare programs, every expenditure across sectors like education, energy, and infrastructure must be evaluated through a gender-sensitive lens. In essence, effective budgeting cannot be achieved without accurately measuring the extent of women’s inclusion.

Expanding the WEE Index to Drive Inclusive Growth

·       The WEE Index developed by Uttar Pradesh presents a scalable model that can be replicated in other states aspiring to grow into trillion-dollar economies, such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Telangana. By converting gender data into actionable district-level plans, these states can strategically align their budgets, infrastructure development, and programmatic efforts to systematically close gender gaps. India’s approach must evolve from symbolic commitments to concrete systemic changes by embedding a gender perspective into governance at all levels.

·       The WEE Index is only the starting point—its real power lies in making the unseen visible, thus paving the way to bring women from the margins to the forefront of India’s growth trajectory.

Conclusion:

Achieving India’s full economic potential by 2047 hinges on closing gender disparities through enhanced gender data, gender-responsive budgeting, and scalable frameworks like the WEE Index. Without these measures, India’s goal of inclusive and sustainable growth remains out of reach.