BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING ON THE SHOPFLOOR

As India targets manufacturing as the engine of its next growth phase, the industry faces a paradox: millions of trained women engineers and technicians remain underutilised.

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The question is no longer whether women belong on the factory floor; it is how fast the sector can remove the barriers that keep them from leading it. With the sector aiming to raise its contribution to GDP from 16% to 25% by 2030, backed by initiatives such as the Production-Linked Incentive scheme, the need for a broader, inclusive workforce has become impossible to ignore. Yet women account for only 12% of India's organised manufacturing workforce, despite a growing pool of qualified talent.

India's manufacturing ambition is among the most consequential economic bets of this decade. The government's Production Linked Incentive scheme, worth 1.97 lakh crore across 14 sectors; the push to position India as a credible alternative to China in electronics and semiconductors; and the overarching target to raise manufacturing's share of GDP from 16% to 25% by 2030 – all of it rests on a workforce large enough, skilled enough, and diverse enough to execute at scale.

Women. make up only a small share of India's organised manufacturing workforce, despite a strong pipeline of female engineering graduates each year. This gap is not about talent or capability. It reflects deeper structural and cultural barriers, making greater inclusion in manufacturing not just a social need, but an economic imperative.

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