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The Udaiti Foundation, India’s leading authority on women's workforce participation, has unveiled its latest findings from the Women’s Formal Employment Tracker for FY 2023-2024.
Part of Udaiti’s flagship Close the Gender Gap (CGG) Initiative, this is the fourth consecutive year that this report is being put together. This year’s findings reveal that the representation of women in formal employment across NSE-listed companies remained at 18% in FY 2023–2024, marginally, decreasing by 0.6% from the previous year.
Data for the Women's Formal Employment Tracker was extracted from the SEBI mandated Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) reports and annual reports of the NSE-Listed companies. This year’s report looks at a total of 1256 NSE listed companies, who collectively employ 13.4 million people of which only 2.4 million are women.
Women's representation is highest in Hospitals & Labs at 41% (linked to caregiving roles), followed by the Textiles sector at 36% (women’s historical presence in garment industry), IT sector at 34%, (office-based jobs, educated talent pool), Consumer Services at 30% (women preferred in consumer-facing roles) and Banks at 26% (desk-based roles).
In FY24, 98% of companies had at least one woman on their Board of Directors, but only 46% had more than one. For Key Management Positions (KMPs)—including CEOs, CFOs, and company secretaries—50% of companies had at least one woman, while just 10% had more than one.
To realise its $30 trillion economy goal and 70% female workforce participation by 2047, India must urgently dismantle demand-side barriers—bias in hiring, pay gaps, and inadequate care and safety infrastructure.
