Women risk being left out of India’s fast-growing app-based gig workforce
An ILO-NCAER study flags digital-access gaps, safety concerns, mobility constraints and social norms as barriers to women joining platforms such as Swiggy, Uber and Urban Company. India’s gig workforce is projected to reach 23.5 million by 2029-30.
What happened
India gig economy · An ILO-NCAER study finds women are underrepresented in India’s app-based gig workforce, including Swiggy, Uber and Urban Company.
Key facts
- India female labour-force participation: about 32% in 2025
- India male labour-force participation: almost 78% in 2025
- Projected gig workers: 23.5 million by 2029-30
- Projected annual gig-economy output contribution: ₹2.35 lakh crore ($24.5 billion)
- Women aged 15+ owning a mobile phone: 56.2%
- Women aged 15+ able to conduct online banking: 37%
- Digital banking account ownership in 2024: 32% of men versus 14% of women
- Target female labour-force participation: 50%
Why this matters
Prioritize partnerships or acquisitions in women’s safety, digital onboarding, transport access and flexible-work enablement to help platforms unlock an underserved gig-worker segment.
What to watch
- Platform announcements of women-only onboarding, safety guarantees, shift restrictions or dedicated service categories.
- State or central incentives, labor codes or social-security rules targeting women platform workers.
- Female worker share, retention and average earnings disclosures from major Indian delivery, ride-hailing and home-service platforms.
- Rising demand for women service professionals in beauty, home care, repair, wellness and assisted-commerce categories.
- Safety incidents, harassment complaints or litigation involving gig workers and customers.
- Expansion of affordable smartphone ownership, digital-payment usage and women’s mobility infrastructure in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
- Build women-worker acquisition funnels through self-help groups, vocational institutes, microfinance networks and local community partners.
- Prioritize daylight shift design, neighborhood-based task matching, SOS escalation, verified customers and guaranteed return-travel support.
- Create women-provider inventory in high-trust retail-service categories such as beauty, tailoring, elder care, childcare support and home consultation.
- Offer device financing, vernacular app training and assisted digital onboarding to reduce smartphone and payments barriers.
- Measure female applicant-to-active-worker conversion, safety incident rates, earnings parity, retention and canceled-job rates by city and shift.
- Use women-led delivery and service supply as a differentiation lever for female customer cohorts, rather than treating it solely as an ESG initiative.