Why has female labour force participation stagnated or fallen in some Union Territories even as the national rate rose? Suggest ways to improve it.

India's female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) rose to 41.7% in 2023–24 [2]. Between 2019–20 and 2025, rural FLFPR rose from 33% to 45.9% and urban FLFPR from 23.3% to 27.7% [1]. Over the same period, FLFPR in Delhi and Lakshadweep fell in both rural and urban areas, and urban FLFPR also fell in Puducherry and Ladakh [1]. This points to limits on women's ability to take up work, not simply to a lack of jobs.

Reasons for stagnation or decline

• Urban work is "all or nothing": UTs are mostly urban, so women have no family farm or home enterprise to fall back on. Nationally, urban FLFPR is rising at only 0.88 pp a year, against 2.58 pp in rural areas [1].
• Care burden: 44.4% of women outside the labour force give childcare and home-making as the main reason [3].
• Safety and mobility: Delhi has plenty of jobs, yet its FLFPR fell [1]. Unsafe or costly commutes keep many women from taking jobs that do exist.
• Narrow local economies: In island and high-altitude UTs such as Lakshadweep and Ladakh, work is concentrated in a few seasonal sectors like fisheries and tourism.
• Unreliable small samples: PLFS surveys only a few households in tiny UTs, so a figure like Lakshadweep's −2.34 pp a year [1] may exaggerate the real trend.

Ways to improve it

• Care infrastructure: Enforce the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 requirement for crèches, and set up public childcare in urban wards.
• Safe mobility: Make women's safety in public transport and last-mile connectivity part of labour policy, not only welfare. The Centre administers the UTs directly, so it can act on this itself.
• Skilling: Among women who received vocational training, 51.4% were in the workforce [3]. Expand training linked to local sectors such as tourism, fish processing and services.
• Local livelihoods: Use DAY-NRLM self-help groups to build women-run enterprises in island and hill UTs.
• Better data: MoSPI should report the type of work for each UT and use larger samples in small UTs.
• Learn from the North East: Arunachal Pradesh recorded the fastest rise in both rural (+8.28 pp a year) and urban (+5.24 pp a year) areas [1]. Study what drives it before copying the model elsewhere.

The fall in some UTs is mostly caused by care duties, safety and narrow local economies rather than a shortage of jobs. Because the Centre governs the UTs directly, it can address these through care, transport and skilling policies. Doing so would help meet SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 8 (decent work) and the constitutional promise of equal opportunity.