India’s recent employment data presents a seemingly triumphant narrative: rural women’s labour force participation has nearly doubled, soaring from 24.6% in 2017-18 to 47.6% in 2023-24, marking one of the sharpest increases globally. However, a deeper analysis by global civil rights group Oxfam, coupled with warnings from financial accountability experts, reveals that this statistical surge is not a hallmark of women’s economic empowerment. Instead, it is a distress signal pointing to shrinking opportunities, falling wages, and a dismantled rural safety net.
The core of the issue lies not in the volume of women working, but in the precarious nature of the work they are doing. According to the Oxfam analysis of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, the surge is overwhelmingly driven by a spike in "self-employment"—a broad administrative category that covers everything from running a small shop to unpaid labour on a family farm.
Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, the share of self-employed rural women jumped from 57% to 72.2%. Crucially, 59% of these women are unpaid helpers in family enterprises. Concurrently, the share of women in secure, regular salaried jobs fell from 11% to 8%, and casual labour dropped from 32% to 20%. In effect, as women have moved into the workforce, they have moved out of the jobs that offer a wage, a contract, or basic security.
Distress, Not Choice
Economists and rural researchers emphasize that this shift is driven by economic distress, not expanded choice. Long-running village studies indicate that women often withdraw from paid work when household incomes improve, and re-enter the workforce when times get hard. As household finances face strain, women’s unpaid and low-paid labour becomes a critical coping mechanism.
The data shows a distinct "return to the land," with the share of own-account women workers engaged in agriculture and allied activities climbing from 62% to 70%. This trend is heavily concentrated among the most vulnerable. In Uttar Pradesh, which has emerged as the epicentre of this shift, 91% of self-employed women work in agriculture. The majority are illiterate, belong to the poorest economic classes, and are from marginalized social categories (Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes). Compounding this vulnerability is the systemic lack of land titles in their names, which cuts them off from formal credit, agricultural inputs, and markets, even as they perform the physical labour of farming.
A Shrinking Public Safety Net
This retreat into unpaid family farming is being accelerated by policy changes that have eroded public support systems. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which historically empowered rural women (who accounted for 54% of person-days worked), has been significantly scaled back.
It is being replaced by the newly structured Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-GRAM-G) framework, which experts warn is fundamentally flawed. Unlike the old demand-driven guarantee, the new structure rations work to specific seasons, shifts 40% of the wage bill onto already fiscally stressed state governments, and mandates twice-daily geo-tagged photo uploads via a mobile app. This creates a steep digital barrier for women with limited access to technology or digital literacy. Recent analyses indicate that rural non-farm work under this new framework has already seen steep year-on-year declines.
The Accountability Lens
For financial watchdogs, the human cost of this statistical anomaly is clear. In a recent statement, the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) highlighted the hidden ledger of this so-called progress, urging a shift in how policymakers evaluate these metrics.
“For a finance and accountability lens, the question is simple: who is paying for this ‘rise’?” the CFA team stated. “Women are carrying the cost through unpaid work, falling security and no claim over the land they farm, while public money for rural employment shrinks. A higher participation number should not be celebrated until it comes with fair wages, secure work and social protection. Until then, the number tells us how hard women are working to keep households afloat, not how far India has moved on women’s economic inclusion.”
The Path Forward
As India continues to track its economic growth and development metrics, experts urge policymakers, media, and the public to look beyond headline participation rates. True economic inclusion for rural women will not be achieved by merely counting them in the workforce, but by ensuring their work is recognized, remunerated, and protected.
Until fair wages, land rights, and robust social security nets are guaranteed, the rising numbers will remain a testament to women’s resilience in the face of systemic neglect, rather than a victory for gender equity.
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