Women lead economy - Beneficiaries to wealth creators

This article is authored by Ajay Jasra, consultant, Rural Advocacy, New Delhi.

India's growth story is increasingly being written with women not merely as participants in development, but as agents who shape it. The policy conversation has moved beyond the language of welfare and protection towards a more expansive idea of agency, finance, assets, entrepreneurship, technology, skills, markets and the freedom to make economic choices, an effort to make protection a foundation for productive agency.

Female (REUTERS)

A significant part of the recent rise in women's workforce participation has been concentrated in rural self-employment. The central challenge is not merely to increase participation, but to improve its productivity, remuneration and ownership.

India's policy approach is a continuum, not a replacement of welfare with markets but a pathway from protection to participation: a bank account becomes the gateway to credit; a skill, a livelihood; a livelihood, an enterprise; an enterprise, employment for others and sustained income, eventually, household wealth.

The Self-Help Group (SHG) movement remains the largest platform for this mobilisation. Its significance extends well beyond micro-credit: SHGs have created institutions through which women save collectively, borrow formally, access training, engage with government agencies and enter markets. Collective organisation reduces the disadvantages of scale individual women entrepreneurs frequently face.

The Lakhpati Didi initiative marks a shift from creating livelihoods to enabling sustainable, higher household incomes, supporting SHG women toward an annual household income of at least ₹1 lakh and strengthening their economic resilience and decision-making power. It has covered 34 States/UTs and 757 districts, with 10.14 crore SHG members and 3.87 crore Potential Lakhpati Didis identified. Its significance lies in enabling women to accumulate assets and withstand shocks, emerging not as a beneficiary but as a wealth creator in India's growth story.

In Goa, this transition is visible at the sub-national level: rather than relying solely on cash assistance, the state's rural livelihood mission has prioritised market integration, commercial accreditation and credit linkage, in line with the national Lakhpati Didi initiative. By 2025, more than 3,250 registered SHGs in the state had secured roughly ₹340 crore in institutional bank credit, moving from informal thrift into commercial food processing, tailoring and eco-tourism with accredited SHGs contracted to run public-sector canteens, turning public procurement into a recurring marketplace for women-led enterprises.

Financial inclusion has similarly evolved from account ownership towards productive capital. Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, 32.68 crore of 58.90 crore accounts were held by women as of 1 July 2026; under the Mudra Yojana, more than 57.79 crore loans had been sanctioned, involving ₹40.07 lakh crore in disbursement as of April 2026, with women a substantial majority. Formal finance changes the terms on which women participate in economic activity, enabling investment in equipment, inventory and working capital.

Women-owned enterprises face constraints beyond finance, collateral, networks, certification, market access, where public procurement can be a powerful bridge: the Government e-Marketplace's Womaniya initiative has registered more than 2.1 lakh women-led enterprises, securing 13.7 lakh orders in Financial Year (FY) 2025–26 with contract value exceeding ₹28,000 crore.

Technology is changing what women can produce and sell, most strikingly through the Namo Drone Didi initiative, training SHG women to operate drones for agricultural services, backed by an outlay of ₹1,261 crore and assistance of 80% of the drone cost, up to ₹8 lakh.

This broader approach spans entrepreneurship, education, health care, sanitation, housing, sports, science and governance: the goal is not to push every woman towards entrepreneurship, but to ensure every woman has meaningful economic choices.

Control over productive assets is also transformative: joint or individual ownership of housing and land strengthens women's ability to obtain credit and participate in household decisions. Under PMAY-G, more than 96 lakh houses have been allotted only to women and under PMAY-U 2.0, one crore houses to women — a tangible stake in household wealth.

None of this is sustainable without safety, dignity and access to justice. The Government has strengthened this architecture through One Stop Centres, Women Helpline 181, Women Help Desks and Fast Track Special Courts: 991 One Stop Centres have assisted more than 15.59 lakh women, helpline 181 has handled over 3.23 crore calls and assisted more than 1.05 crore women and more than 15,049 Women Help Desks have been established, 14,363 headed by women officers. This reflects a move to an integrated architecture, Mission Shakti's Sambal and Samarthya components, alongside PMMVY, Palna and Nari Adalats, resting on a philosophy where capability, opportunity, productivity and genuine choice reinforce one another.

The Gender Budget for 2026–27 has reached ₹5.01 lakh crore across 53 ministries/departments, the highest since gender budgeting began, integrating women's priorities across infrastructure, finance, livelihoods, skills, health, education and housing. Women-led development is also incomplete without a greater voice in decision-making: the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, reflects nari shakti as leadership and agency, women as entrepreneurs, professionals, elected representatives and decision-makers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can become a powerful enabler of women-led development, expanding access to education, skilling, health care, financial services, entrepreneurship and digital markets for underserved communities, helping entrepreneurs analyse markets and reach customers beyond their geographies. This opportunity carries risks, the digital gender divide, limited device access, gaps in AI literacy, algorithmic bias, data privacy, and exclusion from emerging technology-driven jobs. The priority must be to ensure women are not merely users of AI, but creators, innovators and decision-makers in India's emerging AI economy.

This article is authored by Ajay Jasra, consultant, Rural Advocacy, New Delhi.