What Union Budget 2025 can offer women workers in manufacturing
This article is authored by Soumen Ghosh, assistant professor, School of Economics and Public Policy, RV University, Bengaluru.
The Union Budget should prioritise the needs of the women workforce in manufacturing, focusing on fostering equitable and inclusive opportunities. By addressing systemic challenges and promoting gender equity, the budget can play a pivotal role in enhancing the participation and well-being of women workers across the sector.

India has evolved into a major manufacturing hub for many international brands. Given Bangladesh's ongoing political turmoil, demand in India will likely continue to rise, particularly for fashion-related products like apparel and leather. By relying on domestic manufacturing, this breakthrough promotes the intended objectives of the Government of India's Viksit Bharat campaign and offers an optimistic future for the economic growth of the nation.
In India's manufacturing landscape, the apparel and leather industries have significant importance for two primary reasons: they contribute a substantial share of export earnings and generate a significant amount of employment opportunities. Notably, women are indispensable to these sectors, carrying out several kinds of employment opportunities, including unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled labour. Based on the most recent Periodic Labour Force Survey data, women's workforce participation is increasing continuously, reaching 37% in 2022–2023. But irrespective of their increased participation and contributions, women workers continue to experience difficult working conditions, highlighting the persistent gender disparity in these fields.
While aggregate statistics portray an optimistic picture, the actual situation for women workers in these industries is far less promising. The manufacturing sector in India got an enormous amount of attention due to global collaborations through supply chains. At the same time, there has been an apparent decline in working conditions, particularly among women. Earlier, the rigid labour laws have frequently been highlighted as a hindering factor for global businesses and investors, which leads to more difficulties. But when it comes to the relaxation of labour laws, we found the lack of work flexibility as well. Given this situation, it is essential to adopt an effective approach that safeguards workers' overall well-being while keeping the company's and global brands' interests into consideration.
A couple of things we can expect from this upcoming budget. Gender discrimination continues to be prevalent in India's widely segmented and diverse labour market, where it appears as wage disparities, unequal opportunities, and other difficulties. Decent work alone is inadequate to address these challenges. To efficiently tackle these systemic limitations, a more gender-focused approach is required. It is essential to that workers, especially women are not marginalised with the adoption of new labour codes in states. To enhance workplace safety and security for women in the workforce and foster a more equitable and inclusive work environment, gender-responsive budgeting must be implemented as well.
A more gender-centric approach to the workplace is required to effectively tackle the obstacles that confront women workers in the labour market. This comprises the rolling out of comprehensive initiatives intended to ensure women equal opportunity in every aspect of employment as well as the development of a robust and successful wage equality program implementation that upholds the tenet of "equal work, equal pay." To create a more safe and fair working environment for women, the budget ought to include funds for the establishment and reinforcement of workplace safety and security measures. In addition to these initiatives and policies, funding skill development for production and entrepreneurial ventures, particularly for women, could serve as a pivotal step in strengthening the Make in India initiative. Putting more emphasis on these skill-building initiatives would enable women to take an active part in manufacturing while contributing to the further economic growth of the country.
Existing literature frequently takes an upbeat stand on the empowerment of females, underscoring how essential it is for the Indian manufacturing industry to increase its market share, especially in sectors like apparel and leather. Rather than concentrating only on aggregate data, the Union Budget should give inclusive development a top priority across all dimensions. From workplace equity and equality to holistically establishing social sustainability can be achieved through a gendered-focused approach. Hence, building a more sustainable and favourable workplace for female employees may be a key component in building an equitable society.
This article is authored by Soumen Ghosh, assistant professor, School of Economics and Public Policy, RV University, Bengaluru.
