AI and the Invisible Workforce: The Promise and Peril for India's Informal Women Workers
As India builds its national AI infrastructure, the design choices made today will determine whether the technology empowers or further marginalises the millions of women in the informal economy. A look at the opportunities, the governance challenges, and the path forward.
Pre-requisite: Understanding the Landscape
To grasp the complex interplay between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and India's informal women workforce, a foundational understanding of key terms, the policy timeline, and the institutional actors involved is essential. This section provides the necessary context.
KEY TERMS
- Informal Employment: Work arrangements that are not regulated or protected by legal or social frameworks. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines it based on the nature of the employment relationship and the characteristics of the enterprise, often involving a lack of secure contracts, worker benefits, or social protection.
- Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB): An approach that analyses a government's budget to assess its impact on women and men differently, and then directs spending to promote gender equality. It is a tool for ensuring policy commitments are matched with financial resources.
- BHASHINI: An acronym for BHASHa Interface for India, this is a National Language Translation Mission platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Launched in July 2022, it aims to build a national public digital platform for languages to deliver AI and other emerging technologies to citizens in their native languages.
BACKGROUND & TIMELINE
The current policy discussion is built on several years of digital and social policy evolution. The informal sector has long been a focus, but its intersection with advanced technology is a more recent development.
- 2017: In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, the Supreme Court affirms the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21, a landmark judgment that underpins the governance of data-intensive technologies like AI.
- 2018: An International Labour Organization (ILO) report, 'Women and Men in the Informal Economy', highlights that over 90% of working women in India are in informal employment.
- 2021: The Government of India notifies the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. These rules mandate grievance redressal mechanisms for social media platforms to address harmful content, a key concern for women's digital safety.
- 2022-23: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for this period reports that 76.9% of rural women are engaged in agriculture, making them a primary constituency for AI-driven agricultural technologies.
- December 2023: India hosts the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Summit in New Delhi, championing a framework for safe, trusted, and accountable AI.
- March 2024: The Union Cabinet approves the IndiaAI Mission with a budget outlay of ₹10,372 crore to bolster the country's AI ecosystem.
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
Several government and international bodies are central to shaping the policy and implementation of AI in India, particularly concerning its impact on women.
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY): The nodal ministry for promoting e-governance, inclusive growth of the IT industry, and spearheading initiatives like the IndiaAI Mission and BHASHINI. It is also responsible for formulating AI governance frameworks.
- UN Women: The United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality. UN Women India works with government and civil society to design and implement programmes that advance women's rights, including in the digital sphere.
- National Commission for Women (NCW): A statutory body established in 1992, tasked with advising the government on policy matters affecting women. Its review of cyber laws provides evidence-based recommendations for strengthening digital safety for women.
What is the core issue?
The central issue is whether the rapid deployment of Artificial Intelligence in India will serve as a catalyst for inclusive growth or as a new vector for structural inequality, particularly for women in the informal sector. According to a 2018 International Labour Organization (ILO) report, over 90% of working women in India are engaged in informal employment. This vast workforce, concentrated in sectors like agriculture, home-based production, and domestic services, remains largely outside formal economic structures and social safety nets. As AI reshapes value chains, the design of these new systems—the data they are trained on, the languages they support, and the interfaces they employ—will determine if they bridge or widen existing divides, impacting the constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 14.
What is the government's strategy and vision?
The Government of India has articulated a vision of leveraging AI for national development, encapsulated in the goal of 'Viksit Bharat by 2047'. The official strategy is multi-pronged, focusing on building foundational infrastructure and establishing a governance framework. The cornerstone is the IndiaAI Mission, approved in March 2024 with an outlay of ₹10,372 crore to build a robust AI ecosystem. This is complemented by platforms like BHASHINI, which aims to make AI accessible across India's linguistic diversity. While a comprehensive AI law is still under development, the government's approach is guided by principles of fairness, equity, and accountability, as emphasized during the GPAI Summit in December 2023. The stated position, articulated by officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is that AI's success will be measured by its ability to deliver productivity gains to those at the base of the economic pyramid.
What does early evidence suggest about AI's impact?
Early evidence from pilot projects indicates that AI tools designed with inclusivity can have a positive impact. A 2024 study of Farmer.Chat, an AI-powered agricultural advisory service, found that 61% of its women users reported an improved quality of life within 45 days. The study also noted their engagement levels were two to three times higher than those of male users. This suggests that when AI tools are relevant, accessible in local languages, and designed considering women's specific constraints, they can drive adoption and positive outcomes. Data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2022-23, which reported that 76.9% of rural women are engaged in agriculture, underscores the potential for scaling such gender-responsive agritech solutions.
What are the key governance challenges and proposed solutions?
Translating high-level principles into tangible outcomes for informal women workers presents three primary challenges. The first is operationalising fairness through mandatory gender impact assessments for AI systems affecting economic opportunity or welfare access. This requires moving beyond principles to create auditable standards that check for biases based on gender, caste, or location, ensuring redressal mechanisms are accessible via platforms like BHASHINI. The second challenge is building AI literacy as public infrastructure. Access to tools is insufficient without the capacity to use them. The proposed solution is to embed AI literacy modules within large-scale government programmes like the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM, launched 2011), which has organized over 8 crore women into Self-Help Groups, and the Skill India mission (launched 2015). The third challenge is ensuring digital safety. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence has a documented 'chilling effect' on women's online economic participation. The IT Rules, 2021, which mandate grievance mechanisms, and MeitY’s proposed labelling of AI-generated content are foundational steps. Experts from UN Women and the NCW argue that effective, survivor-centric implementation of these rules is a prerequisite for women's sustained digital and economic engagement.
Why This Matters Now
The debate over AI's impact on India's informal women workers is an urgent policy challenge. India is in a critical phase of building its national AI infrastructure through the recently approved IndiaAI Mission. The design choices, procurement standards, and safety frameworks being established today will lock in patterns of access and exclusion for years. Ensuring that principles of fairness and equity are embedded in this foundational architecture is crucial to prevent the amplification of existing social and economic disparities, aligning technological progress with the constitutional mandate for socio-economic justice.
The Likely Trajectory
Over the next one to five years, the focus will shift from policy formulation to implementation and oversight. A key development will be the integration of gender impact assessments into the procurement protocols for public-sector AI systems under the IndiaAI Mission. Future budget cycles are likely to see specific allocations for embedding AI literacy modules within the Skill India and DAY-NRLM missions. Concurrently, there will be increased pressure for inter-ministerial action to strengthen the enforcement of the IT Rules, 2021, and to finalize the proposed Digital India Act, which is expected to create a more comprehensive legal framework for online safety and AI accountability.
Governance and Societal Implications
The challenge of making AI work for informal women workers is a microcosm of India's larger development journey, directly impacting the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work). The success of the 'Viksit Bharat 2047' vision hinges not on aggregate GDP growth alone, but on whether productivity gains from AI reach the most marginalized. This requires a deliberate shift in how success is defined and measured—moving beyond macro-indicators to focus on metrics of meaningful, productive, and safe access for all citizens. The outcomes will test the nation's ability to translate technological prowess into genuine, broad-based prosperity.