Women’s participation in economy, education, and enterprise seeing steady rise: MoSPI

New Delhi: Women in India are steadily gaining ground across education, finance, enterprise and political participation, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) said in a report published on Sunday.

The 26th edition of MoSPI’s Women and Men in India 2024 report noted that the Gender Parity Index (GPI) for enrolments at the primary and higher secondary was higher in FY24 than in FY23 and FY22, meaning more girls are being enrolled now.

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At upper primary and elementary levels the enrolment numbers were more or less the same for boys and girls.

The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women aged 15 and above improved significantly, rising from 49.8% in 2017-18 to 60.1% in 2023-2, the report said.

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In the financial sector, women own 39.2% of all bank accounts and contribute to 39.7% of total deposits, with their presence most prominent in rural areas, where they account for 42.2% of account holders.

Female participation in the capital market is also growing, but overall numbers are small.

Between March 2021 and November 2024, the number of DEMAT accounts surged from 33.26 million to 143.02 million.

Of these. the number of women account holders rose from 6.67 million in 2021 to 27.71 million in 2024.

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The MoSPI report indicated a rise in female-headed proprietary establishments across manufacturing, trade, and services over the past three years (2021-22 to 2023-24), reflecting growing economic independence.

Political participation among women has strengthened as well, according to MoSPI.

The number of male and female voters grew from 173.2 million in 1952 to 978 million in 2024, with an increasing share of females.

In the 2024 general elections, female voter turnout (65.8%) surpassed male turnout, even as it dipped slightly from 67.2% in 2019.

Female entrepreneurship is also on the rise.

The number of startups recognized by DPIIT with at least one woman director rose sharply from 1,943 in 2017 to 17,405 in 2024.