Women at Work
Job is more than just a source of income; it brings dignity, a sense of purpose, and can uplift the human condition. When women and girls can reach their full potential and join the workforce, they transform not only their families but also communities and societies—driving inclusive, economic growth.
Kausar Jahan was 17 when she married and dropped out of school. The Government of India's Nai Manzil — New Horizons — program gave her a second chance. Some years later, thanks to the training, she got a job at a government hospital in Hyderabad, providing bedside care to patients. More than 50,700 minority women have benefited from the program, that is run by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and was supported by the World Bank.
Bank Sakhis — female banker friends — introduced by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission in 2016–17, have been a lifeline for rural communities, helping people access banking services and government transfers. In Bihar's Aurangabad district, Bandhini Kumari reaches 50 to 80 people every day. "Even those who hardly ever operated their accounts are now coming forward," she says.
In Kerala, women engineers manage dams and build and maintain canals, which channel water downstream for irrigation and domestic use. S. Manju, who works with the Dam Safety department, travels to dam sites across the state for inspections. "We feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that our work impacts people's lives," she says.
For many women, joining the workforce also hinges on having a safe place to stay. The World Bank-supported Thozhi Hostels — thozhi meaning "friend" in Tamil — provide affordable, secure accommodation for working women across 10 Tamil Nadu towns, with 24/7 security, crèche facilities, and freshly cooked meals. The 10 hostels now house 2,000 women at 90 percent occupancy. Building on this, the $150 million Tamil Nadu WESAFE Program, approved in June 2025, will improve job access for 1.6 million women, provide skills training for 600,000 women, and expand enabling services including crèches, safe transport, and harassment hotlines.
At the national level, the World Bank's $830 million PM-SETU Program, approved in February 2026, will revamp India's Industrial Training Institutes to produce over a million better-skilled workers annually — with a commitment to ensure at least 25 percent of students are women, opening access to better-paid trades that have long been male-dominated.
Women in Business
Across the country, women are building enterprises from scratch. In Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli district, 25-year-old Nithya enrolled in a 20-day masonry course at a Community Skills School, formed a partnership with three other women, and landed their first order — 600 sign boards worth INR 15 lakh (~$16,000). Today she earns INR 1,000 a day and has employed three more women from her village. "I never imagined I would earn so soon after my training," she said. Her story reflects a larger transformation: the Tamil Nadu Rural Transformation Project's 2,500 Community Skills Schools have trained over 50,000 young people — 65 percent of them women — and supported the creation of 100,000 enterprises and 53,000 jobs.
Muskanben Vohara, a weaver from Gujarat's Anand district, was trained in digital skills by the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) under the Leelavati Project, supported by the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and managed by the World Bank. Armed with this knowledge, she and her peers shared product photographs online, created WhatsApp customer groups, and enabled digital payments — keeping their business running and selling off their entire stock. "Not only were we able to continue our work uninterrupted," she declared proudly, "we sold off all our stocks of domestic furnishings." SEWA supports women across the informal sector: seamstresses, artisans, vendors, and small farmers.
Yet skills alone are not enough. Women entrepreneurs frequently struggle to secure capital. Millions more — like Subitha Banu, who runs a roadside biryani stall in Erode — remain caught in a financing gap: too large for SHG loans, too small for formal lenders. A World Bank study found that women-owned rural enterprises in this segment employ 22–27 million people. Closing this gap is essential — India currently ranks 70th among 77 nations on the gender gap in entrepreneurship.
Janaki, who runs a hardware store in Sivagangai district, had the drive and the customers — but not the collateral for a bank loan. A World Bank-supported project - Matching Grants Program - provided a 30 percent grant as collateral and connected her to professional support. "My revenue has increased by 40 percent," she said, "and I have hired another woman to help." Since 2022, the program has facilitated INR 267 crore ($31.9 million) in loans for 8,400 women-led enterprises.
Women Helping Community
Anita Devi, an anganwadi worker from Giridih district in Jharkhand, is part of an army of frontline women workers who have long fought malnutrition. When the pandemic – COVID19 struck, these million-plus women stepped up further — going door to door, recording travel histories, noting symptoms, and helping trace contacts. "If the doctors and nurses can leave their families and work, day and night, why can't we contribute in our own small way?" she said.
Women's Self-Help Groups (SHGs) showed the same spirit. Now one of the largest institutional platforms of the poor — with over 100 million members across 9 million groups — SHG women produced facemasks, ran community kitchens, delivered food supplies, and combatted misinformation, demonstrating a capacity for collective action that extends far beyond their original mandate.
In Bihar, the World Bank-supported JEEViKA program has trained 7,500 Poshan Sakhis — nutrition friends — who visit households daily, guiding pregnant women and new mothers on diet and childcare. Vinita, 29, from Muzaffarnagar joined in 2019 when women in her village would retreat at the mere mention of nutrition advice. Today she is welcomed with open arms, tracking progress with a simple system of red and green bindis in homes she visits. The program has also placed 135 Swasthya Mitras — health friends — in hospitals and medical colleges across Bihar. Shalini, 27, commutes across three auto-rickshaws each morning to reach her 6 am shift at Bhagalpur Medical College, guiding poor villagers through hospital procedures. "It is my job to guide them and connect them with the right departments," she says — and her income has allowed her to send her children to school without depending on others. In Samastipur district, 40 JEEViKA women now produce and package Balahar — a nutrient-rich baby food — as a small-scale enterprise, turning a nutrition initiative into a livelihood.
Women Who Broke the Barriers
In Jharkhand, women masons — the rani mistris, or queen masons — broke a deep gender stereotype when they took up construction work during the Swachh Bharat Mission's toilet-building drive. Today, Jharkhand has a 50,000-plus workforce of skilled women masons who helped the state achieve Open Defecation Free status in 2018.
The same state is home to over 1,000 Pashu Sakhis — friends of the animals — trained under the World Bank-supported JOHAR project to provide animal healthcare. Somati from Gumla district now earns INR 10,000–20,000 a month, up from INR 3,000–5,000, and her children attend private school. "I feel gratified when villagers call me Bakri doctor," she says — the doctor of goats. The JOHAR project supports nearly 57,000 farmers — 90 percent of them women — and the Pashu Sakhi model has been recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as one of the top eight global best practice models for farmer service delivery.
In Assam, 37-year-old Kamal Kumari chairs the Joyomoti Farmer Producer Company — an all-women shareholder company of 435 members from 25 villages. In 2022, they secured a buy-back contract with a multinational company for their potato crop, earning a profit of INR 20 lakh. "We have always been farmers," says Kamal, "but now we are agripreneurs." Supported by the World Bank's Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART), 125 such companies have been established across the state, with over 20,000 women shareholders. For member Ranju Goala, the change has been as much personal as economic: "Earlier, I would never stand up and speak in front of people. Today, I can communicate with outsiders, engage in business discussions, and voice my opinion. I now have an identity and feel empowered."
