About
Feminization of poverty refers to the tendency of women and girls to face a higher risk of poverty, deeper economic deprivation and greater vulnerability to economic shocks than men, particularly because of unequal access to employment, income, assets, social protection and decision-making.
Feminization of Poverty in India
India has made considerable progress in reducing overall poverty, but gender-based economic disadvantages continue. The World Bank’s 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief notes that the number of women in paid self-employment has nearly tripled since 2017–18, but it also highlights the continuing need to improve job quality and stability.
o Low female labour-force participation: PLFS 2025 reported female LFPR for persons aged 15 years and above at 34.6%, compared with 58.8% for men, showing a substantial gender gap in economic participation.
o Female-headed households: The World Bank Gender Data Portal reports that 17.5% of Indian households were female-headed in 2021.
o Higher vulnerability: World Bank analysis of social protection in India notes that female-headed households can face disproportionate poverty risks, while women workers may face barriers related to public spaces, digital access and financial services.
o Multidimensional poverty: India’s multidimensional poverty has declined sharply—from 24.85% in 2015–16 to 14.96% in 2019–21—but the national MPI does not itself provide a simple female-versus-male poverty rate because its core unit of measurement is the household.
A decline in overall poverty does not automatically eliminate the feminization of poverty because access to and control over household resources may remain unequal even when the household as a whole is classified as non-poor.
Feminization of Poverty (Global Context)
Feminization of poverty is a global phenomenon, although its intensity varies across regions and social groups.
· Global poverty gap: UN Women estimates that in 2024, 9.8% of females globally lived in extreme poverty compared with 9.1% of males. This represented around 24.3 million more females than males living in extreme poverty.
· Women aged 25–34: UN Women reports that women in this age group are 25% more likely to live in extremely poor households than men of the same age.
· Social protection gap: Around 2 billion women and girls globally lack access to any form of social protection, increasing their vulnerability to poverty and economic shocks.
· Care economy: Unpaid care work remains a major structural barrier. UN Women estimates that 708 million women are outside the labour force because of excessive care responsibilities.
· Conflict and climate change: Women and girls in fragile contexts face significantly greater poverty risks; UN Women reports that women in extremely fragile contexts are 7.7 times more likely to live in extreme poverty than women in non-fragile contexts.
· Global policy response: UN Women emphasises gender-responsive social protection, quality public services, investment in the care economy, equal employment opportunities and women’s access to assets and finance as key measures for reducing female poverty.
Causes of Feminization of Poverty
Economic Causes
o Low Labour-Force Participation: Women’s participation in paid work remains significantly below men’s, reducing their independent income and economic security. PLFS 2025 shows a female LFPR of 34.6% compared with 58.8% for men.
o Wage and Occupational Gaps: Women are more likely to be concentrated in low-paid, informal, casual and vulnerable occupations.
o Limited Asset Ownership: Unequal access to land, property, inheritance and productive assets reduces women’s ability to withstand economic shocks.
o Limited Access to Credit: Lack of collateral, financial literacy and control over assets can restrict women’s access to formal credit and entrepreneurship.
Social Causes
o Unpaid Care Work: Women continue to carry a disproportionate share of household work, childcare and elderly care, limiting the time available for paid employment.
o Early Marriage and Childbearing: Early marriage can interrupt education and reduce women’s opportunities for skill development and formal employment.
o Gender Norms: Social expectations regarding women’s roles can restrict mobility, employment choices and financial decision-making.
o Discrimination: Women belonging to SC/ST communities, poor households, minority groups and remote regions may experience multiple and overlapping disadvantages.
Structural Causes
o Informal Employment: Informal workers often lack social security, paid leave, pensions and employment protection.
o Digital Divide: Limited access to smartphones, internet connectivity and digital skills can restrict women’s access to jobs, financial services and government schemes.
o Weak Social Protection: Women with interrupted work histories may have limited access to contributory benefits such as pensions and unemployment protection.
Measures of Feminization of Poverty
Conventional poverty measures are often inadequate because household-level poverty assumes that resources are equally distributed among household members. Therefore, feminization of poverty should be assessed through multiple indicators.
o Female Poverty Rate: Compare the proportion of women and men living below a defined poverty line.
o Gender Poverty Gap: Measure the difference between the poverty rates of women and men.
o Female-Headed Household Poverty: Compare poverty among female-headed and male-headed households.
o Income and Wealth Ownership: Examine women’s independent income and ownership of land, housing, financial assets and productive resources.
o Employment Indicators: Compare female LFPR, employment quality, wages, occupational segregation and access to formal employment.
o Multidimensional Poverty: Assess gender differences in nutrition, health, education, housing, sanitation, electricity and financial inclusion.
o Time Poverty: Measure the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic and care work borne by women.
Limitation: Female-headed household data alone cannot measure feminization of poverty because many poor women live in male-headed households and may still have limited control over household resources. This limitation has been highlighted in gender-and-poverty research.
Impact of Feminization of Poverty
o Human Capital Loss: Poverty among women can reduce investment in their education, nutrition and healthcare, weakening human capital.
o Intergenerational Poverty: Poor mothers may have fewer resources to invest in children’s nutrition, education and healthcare, increasing the risk of poverty being transmitted across generations.
o Poor Health Outcomes: Economic deprivation can reduce access to healthcare and adequate nutrition, particularly during pregnancy and childbirth.
o Lower Economic Growth: When women cannot participate fully in the labour market, the economy loses a significant part of its productive potential.
o Greater Vulnerability to Shocks: Women with low savings, limited assets and insecure employment are more vulnerable to economic crises, illness, disasters and climate shocks.
o Reduced Agency: Economic dependence can weaken women’s bargaining power within the household and limit their participation in decision-making.
o Social Exclusion: Poverty can reinforce vulnerabilities related to caste, disability, widowhood, migration and social status.
Government Policies Addressing Feminization of Poverty
Mission Shakti
o It seeks to strengthen women’s safety, security and empowerment through a lifecycle approach.
o It has two broad components—Sambal for safety and security and Samarthya for empowerment. Its components include One Stop Centres, Women Helplines, BBBP, Shakti Sadans, Sakhi Niwas, PMMVY, Palna and Hubs for Empowerment of Women.
Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
o It provides maternity support to improve maternal and child health and partially compensate for wage loss.
o Eligible beneficiaries receive ₹5,000 for the first child, while ₹6,000 is available for the second child when the child is a girl, subject to scheme conditions. Payments are made through DBT.
DAY-NRLM
o It seeks to reduce rural poverty through women’s self-help groups, livelihood development and financial inclusion.
o SHGs help women access credit, savings, skills, entrepreneurship and collective economic activities.
Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana
o It promotes financial inclusion, particularly among households that have limited access to formal banking.
o Bank accounts, DBT access and linkages with insurance and pension systems can strengthen women’s financial security.
PM SVANidhi
o It supports the livelihoods of street vendors, including women working in the informal urban economy.
o It provides working-capital credit and incentives for digital transactions, helping informal workers strengthen their livelihoods.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao
o It addresses gender discrimination and promotes the survival, protection, education and empowerment of girls.
o It focuses mainly on social and behavioural change, rather than functioning as a direct cash-transfer scheme. It is now part of the Sambal component of Mission Shakti.
Palna
o It supports childcare facilities so that women can participate more effectively in the workforce.
o Creches provide childcare and help reduce the care burden that can prevent women from taking up paid employment. It is part of the Samarthya component of Mission Shakti.
Challenges in Addressing Feminization of Poverty
· Household-Level Measurement: Conventional poverty data often treats the household as a single economic unit and therefore may hide intra-household inequalities.
· Low Female Employment: Despite improvement, women’s labour-force participation remains significantly below men’s. PLFS 2025 recorded 34.6% female LFPR versus 58.8% for men.
· Unpaid Care Burden: Lack of affordable childcare and eldercare limits women’s ability to enter and remain in paid employment.
· Informalisation: Many women enter self-employment or informal work without adequate wages, social security or employment protection.
· Asset and Credit Gaps: Legal equality does not always translate into effective ownership and control over land, property and financial resources.
· Intersectional Disadvantage: A poor woman may face additional barriers because of caste, tribe, disability, age, widowhood or geographical isolation.
· Digital and Mobility Barriers: Lack of access to technology, safe transport and public spaces can restrict women’s participation in modern economic opportunities.
· Implementation Gaps: Government schemes may exist on paper but fail to reach women because of lack of awareness, documentation requirements, weak local institutions or inadequate convergence.
Constitutional Provisions
| Article | Relevance to Women’s Economic Security |
| Article 14 | Guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws. |
| Article 15(1) | Prohibits discrimination by the State on grounds including sex. |
| Article 15(3) | Allows the State to make special provisions for women and children. |
| Article 16 | Guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment. |
| Article 21 | Protects the right to life and personal liberty, interpreted to include dignity and livelihood-related protections. |
| Article 23 | Prohibits trafficking and forced labour, which disproportionately affects vulnerable women. |
| Article 39(a) | Directs the State to ensure that men and women have equal right to an adequate means of livelihood. |
| Article 39(d) | Directs the State to secure equal pay for equal work for men and women. |
| Article 39(e) | Seeks protection of workers’ health and strength, including women. |
| Article 42 | Directs the State to secure just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. |
| Article 43 | Directs the State to secure a living wage and decent conditions of work. |
| Article 243D & 243T | Provide reservation for women in Panchayats and Municipalities, strengthening participation in local governance. |
Important Supreme Court Case Laws
Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020): The Supreme Court held that a daughter has the same coparcenary rights and liabilities as a son under the Hindu Succession Act. This is significant for women’s economic security because equal inheritance rights strengthen women’s access to property and productive assets.
Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997): The Supreme Court recognised workplace sexual harassment as a violation of women’s fundamental rights to equality, dignity and freedom to work and laid down the Vishaka Guidelines, which later contributed to the enactment of the 2013 workplace sexual-harassment law.
Way Forward
· Measure Poverty Within Households: Poverty surveys should increasingly capture individual-level control over income, assets, food, education and healthcare, rather than assuming equal distribution within households.
· Increase Women’s Employment: The focus should shift from merely increasing women’s labour-force participation to creating decent, productive and secure employment.
· Recognise the Care Economy: Affordable creches, childcare, eldercare, maternity support and flexible work arrangements can reduce women’s unpaid-care burden.
· Strengthen Asset Ownership: Women’s effective ownership of land, housing, inheritance and financial assets should be ensured through legal awareness, documentation and institutional support.
· Improve Access to Finance: Women entrepreneurs and SHGs should receive better access to formal credit, markets, technology and business skills.
· Expand Gender-Responsive Social Protection: Welfare programmes should account for women’s specific risks during pregnancy, widowhood, old age, disability, unemployment and economic shocks.
· Focus on Intersectionality: Policies should pay special attention to women facing multiple disadvantages, including SC/ST women, tribal women, migrants, women with disabilities and women in remote areas.
· Strengthen Implementation: Schemes should be monitored through gender-disaggregated outcome indicators, social audits and local-level participation rather than only measuring expenditure or beneficiary numbers.
Conclusion
Feminization of poverty is not simply a question of how many women are poor; it is also about why women have fewer economic resources, weaker control over assets, less access to decent work and greater exposure to unpaid care and social risks. India’s progress in reducing overall poverty is significant, but achieving genuine gender equality requires poverty reduction to be accompanied by economic empowerment, asset ownership, decent employment, social protection and recognition of unpaid care work.
FAQs
1. What is feminization of poverty?
Ans: It refers to the greater vulnerability of women and girls to poverty due to unequal access to income, assets, employment and social protection.
2. What are the major causes of feminization of poverty?
Ans: Major causes include low female employment, wage gaps, unpaid care work, limited asset ownership, social discrimination and lack of access to credit.
3. How can feminization of poverty be measured?
Ans: It can be assessed through female poverty rates, gender poverty gaps, asset ownership, employment, wages, social protection and multidimensional deprivation.
4. What are the major impacts of feminization of poverty?
Ans: It can lead to poor health, lower education, reduced economic participation, intergenerational poverty and greater vulnerability to economic shocks.
5. How can India address feminization of poverty?
Ans: India needs to promote women’s employment, asset ownership, financial inclusion, childcare, social protection and access to quality education and healthcare.
