Household responsibilities, including childcare, senior care, and domestic work, leave Indian women with less time for economic work compared to men. According to NITI Aayog, women in India spend 9.8 times more time on unpaid domestic work than men. The 2019 NSS Time Use Survey revealed that women aged 25-44 spent 8.5 hours daily on domestic and caregiving work, while men in the same age group spent less than an hour.

Indian women, on average, have limited mobility outside their homes. In rural areas, more than half of the women employed in non-farm industries did not travel outside their homes, and another 18% are confined to a 1.5 km radius. The situation is only slightly better in urban areas. Additionally, women rarely travel for work. In Mumbai, only 17% of instances of women traveling were for work, compared to 80% for men.

Communities with access to continuous learning and skill development will be better positioned to thrive in this evolving landscape, while those that fail to adapt risk falling further behind economically and socially. Therefore, providing access to upskilling opportunities must be a critical priority for educators, policymakers, and business leaders.

Socioeconomic bottlenecks, such as poor vehicle ownership or public transport networks, contribute to limited mobility (and thus employment), but social restrictions imposed by husbands or in-laws are equally important. A survey conducted among housewives in Mumbai’s slums found that only 42% of women were allowed to work from home, and approval rates continued to fall as work options moved further away from home.