Evaluate the gender and employment dimensions of India's Ayush services sector.

A Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) study has made the first estimate of India's Ayush services economy. It puts the sector at US$36.92 bn in FY2024-25, supporting 1.76 million direct livelihoods, of which 43% are held by women [1]. The sector creates jobs at scale and brings many women into work. The quality and security of those jobs are still unproven.

Gender dimension

• High female share: women hold over 60% of wellness jobs, 58% in education, 57% in day-care and 53% in hospitals [1]. This makes Ayush a strong route for women into services.
• Care-economy fit: wellness, the most feminised segment, is also the fastest-growing (21.29% CAGR) [1].
• Limitation: the study reports women's share of jobs, not their wages, ownership or leadership. How good these jobs are for women is not measured.

Employment dimension: strengths

• Local, dispersed jobs: over 1 million livelihoods are in local and standalone clinics [1], so jobs are spread widely beyond metros.
• Growth pipeline: yoga-centre revenue grew about 75% in two years, and Ayush Medical Value Travel (MVT) earned US$1.77 bn [1].
• Skilling: an Ayush sub-council under the Health Sector Skill Council is building a trained workforce [2].

Employment dimension: weaknesses

• Fragmentation: clinics and day-care centres earn over 71% of revenue [1]. These small units risk informal, low-security jobs.
• Capability gaps: the study names weak quality systems, skills and digital capability as bottlenecks. NABH/ISO accreditation roughly doubles the odds of attracting international patients [1], but few small clinics have it.
• Weak public delivery: under the National Ayush Mission, over 69% of integrated Ayush hospitals were still under construction, only 65% of wellness centres had been set up, and fund use was low [3]. This limits public-sector jobs.

Evaluation: The sector performs well on the number of jobs and women's share. It performs poorly on formality, skills and public provision.

Overall, Ayush pairs job-rich growth with strong female participation, but mostly through small private units. The way forward is to help small clinics get accredited and go digital, to expand sub-council skilling, and to complete National Ayush Mission infrastructure, as the Standing Committee urged [3]. This would turn headcount into decent work, advancing SDG 5 and SDG 8 and the goal of Viksit Bharat @2047.