A Snapshot of Female-headed Establishments in India: Key Insights from the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises 2025
Gender-disaggregated analysis of growth, sectors, states, registration and access to credit.
Section 1 · Growth & Structure
Women own 28.6% of India’s unincorporated non-agricultural establishments, but growth in numbers has not translated into scale. Most remain micro or subsistence-driven, with only about 3% as hired-worker establishments (HWEs), compared with about 17% of male-headed establishments. Some of this growth may be necessity-driven, reflecting limited wage employment opportunities, household income shocks and reliance on home-based work.
Within this base, Growth-Oriented Women Enterprises (GoWEs), units demonstrating proven operating scale, commercial ambition, and viability, remain underserved due to gender inequities in access to finance, markets and growth support. Addressing these barriers can enable GoWEs to scale, driving greater investment, productivity and employment, particularly for women.
↓ The evidence for this take follows in Insights 1.1 to 1.4.
Female-headed establishments make up 28.6% of India’s proprietary establishments, yet few of them are hired-worker establishments, a pattern consistent across all three broad industries
28.6% of proprietary establishments are female-headed
In 2025, 21.4 million proprietary establishments (28.6%) were female-headed, against 53.5 million male-headed.
For every five male-headed establishments, there are about two female-headed establishments.
Only 3.0% are female-headed hired-worker establishments
Only 634.2 thousand female-headed establishments (3.0%) are HWEs, against 9.0 million (16.8%) male-headed establishments.
Male-headed establishments are 5.6 times as likely to employ hired workers as female-headed establishments.
Female-headed establishments outnumber male-headed ones, yet show the widest HWE gap of any industry
Female-headed manufacturing establishments outnumber male-headed ones (12.9 million vs. 8.4 million), accounting for three in every five establishments. However, only 1.2% of female-headed establishments are HWEs, compared to 25.0% of male-headed establishments.
Male-headed establishments are 20.8 times as likely to employ hired workers as female-headed establishments, marking the widest gender gap across the three industries. The gap is 4.2 times in trade and about twice in other services.
Establishments by gender of head
OAEs vs. HWEs by gender
Manufacturing, by gender
Female-headed establishments accounted for 45% of the net increase between 2022–23 and 2025
45% of the net increase in proprietary establishments was female-headed
Comparing only activities covered in both survey rounds, the net addition in proprietary establishments between 2022–23 and 2025 was 10.0 million, of which 4.5 million (45%) were female-headed.
OAEs drove nearly all of this growth: 97% of the female-headed increase, against 89% for male-headed establishments.
Nearly all new female-headed establishments are own-account; only 3.5% hire workers
There are 5.1 million female-headed establishments up to three years old. Own-account establishments (OAEs) make up 96.5% (4.9 million) of them, and hired-worker establishments (HWEs) just 3.5% (0.2 million).
New growth is again mostly small, self-run units that sustain the owner, not enterprises that create jobs.
84.2% of new female-headed establishments are in just six sectors
More than half of female-headed establishments operating for up to three years are in manufacturing, led by wearing apparel (1.9 million). The six leading sectors are wearing apparel, retail trade, other personal service activities*, education*, textiles and tobacco products. Section 2 looks at these sectors in detail.
Female-headed establishments with up to three years of operation, 2025
Female-headed hired-worker establishments generate 12.2 times as much gross value added (GVA) per establishment as female-headed own-account establishments
Female-headed OAEs generate less than half the average GVA of male-headed OAEs
Female-headed OAEs generate an average annual GVA of ₹68.3 thousand, compared to ₹1.8 lakh for male-headed ones. The gap is widest in manufacturing, at ₹47.9 thousand versus ₹1.7 lakh per establishment.
Female-headed establishments nearly match male-headed ones in average GVA when they hire workers
Female-headed HWEs generate an average annual GVA of ₹8.3 lakh, compared to ₹8.8 lakh for male-headed ones. In trade, female-headed HWEs marginally outperform male-headed ones, at ₹8.5 lakh versus ₹8.4 lakh per establishment.
Female-headed HWEs generate 7–16 times as much GVA as female-headed OAEs, a larger disparity than among male-headed establishments
Across industries, female-headed HWEs generate 12.2 times the average GVA of female-headed OAEs, compared to 4.9 times for male-headed establishments. The gap is widest in manufacturing (16.3 times for female-headed vs. 5.8 times for male-headed) and narrowest in trade (7.1 times for female-headed vs. 4.4 times for male-headed).
Average gross value added per establishment, 2025
Female-headed establishments hire fewer workers, but a higher proportion of those hired are women.
Workers grew more slowly than establishments, and hired workers slower still
India’s 74.9 million proprietary establishments employ 119.8 million workers, of whom only 26.5 million are hired workers. Since 2022–23, establishments grew by 21.6%, workers by 17.2% and hired workers by only 10.0%.
In female-headed establishments, 1 in 15 workers is hired, compared to 1 in 4 in male-headed establishments
Female-headed establishments account for 26.3 million workers, including 1.8 million hired workers (6.8%). In comparison, 26.4% of total workers in male-headed establishments are hired (24.7 million out of 93.5 million).
Establishments, workers and hired workers
Workers by gender of establishment head
Section 2 · Sectors
Female-headed establishments are concentrated in manufacturing, followed by other services and trade. Within each, they cluster where hiring is limited: traditionally feminised sectors such as wearing apparel, textiles and food products in manufacturing, retail rather than wholesale in trade, and own-account other personal service activities in services. Higher hiring in wholesale trade, human health activities, accommodation, and food and beverage service activities signals greater potential for employment generation.
Market-led approaches can help scale female-headed establishments where a market constraint is binding. In manufacturing, cluster development, enterprise aggregation and stronger value-chain linkages can expand hiring, open access to larger markets and enable a move into higher-value activities. In trade, stronger buyer-supplier linkages and access to working capital can support entry into wholesale. In services, digital market access and targeted business support can help enterprises reach wider markets and scale.
↓ The evidence for this take follows in Insights 2.1 to 2.4.
The gender gap in the share of HWEs barely narrowed between 2022–23 and 2025: by 0.8 percentage points, or 0.6 on a like-for-like basis
Share of HWEs by gender of head, 2022–23 to 2025
Six in ten female-headed establishments are in manufacturing, concentrated primarily in three sectors
Female-headed establishments accounted for nine in ten new manufacturing establishments
Between 2022–23 and 2025, female-headed establishments accounted for 3.2 million of the 3.6 million net additions in manufacturing. Three sectors contributed 86.0% of these additions: wearing apparel (+2.0 million), textiles (+486.7 thousand) and tobacco products (+264.5 thousand).
Establishments added in manufacturing, 2022–23 to 2025
About one in seven female-headed establishments is in trade, predominantly in retail trade
Nearly half a million female-headed trade establishments were added, almost all in retail trade
Retail trade accounted for 451.4 thousand (97.1%) of new female-headed trade establishments. Overall, women headed less than a third of the 1.6 million new trade establishments.
Establishments added in trade, 2022–23 to 2025
About one in four female-headed establishments is in other services, the fastest-growing and most diverse industry
Other personal service activities alone added 2.0 million female-headed establishments
Other services added 2.8 million female-headed establishments between 2022–23 and 2025, out of 8.1 million in total, with 71.4% (2.0 million) coming from other personal service activities; education added another 287.1 thousand and food and beverage service activities 132.8 thousand. This increase reflects both actual establishment growth and expanded survey coverage, particularly in other personal service activities, education and real estate activities.
Establishments added in other services, 2022–23 to 2025
Section 3 · States
The states with the most female-headed establishments are not necessarily the ones where they have hired workers. These differences are shaped by industrial and sectoral composition, labour supply and demand, demographics, gender norms, socioeconomic conditions, infrastructure and private-sector participation, so the opportunities and constraints facing female-headed establishments vary from state to state. This calls for context-specific, gender-responsive strategies, with state governments playing a central role in anchoring interventions, driving convergence and enabling impact at scale.
↓ The evidence for this take follows in Insights 3.1 and 3.2.
The states with the most female-headed own-account establishments differ significantly from the states with female-headed hired-worker establishments providing employment
West Bengal has the most female-headed establishments
The largest female-headed base is in West Bengal: 3.6 million establishments, or 16.8% of India’s total, ahead of Uttar Pradesh (2.2 million) and Maharashtra (1.9 million).
Proprietary establishments by state, 2025
West Bengal has the most female-headed OAEs per 1,000 working-age women, while Kerala and Tamil Nadu lead among larger states on female-headed HWEs
India has 46.7 female-headed OAEs for every 1,000 working-age women (15–59); West Bengal leads, with Telangana close behind among the larger states. On HWEs, the picture changes: India has 1.4 per 1,000, West Bengal falls below that at 1.0, and Kerala and Tamil Nadu lead among the larger states. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand sit below the national rate on both, with fewer than 0.7 HWEs per 1,000 working-age women.
Female-headed OAEs and HWEs per 1,000 working-age women (15–59), by state, 2025
Own-account establishments (OAEs)
India: 46.7 female-headed OAEs per 1,000 working-age womenHired-worker establishments (HWEs)
India: 1.4 female-headed HWEs per 1,000 working-age womenMore female-headed establishments do not necessarily ensure more hired-worker establishments and greater employment generation
A larger base of female-headed establishments does not necessarily translate into a higher female-headed HWE share
States show considerable variation in the share of female-headed hired-worker establishments.
These differences may reflect variations in socioeconomic conditions, entrepreneurial networks, access to credit and markets, institutional support, and ease of doing business. The chart highlights these patterns but does not establish which factors explain them.
Female-headed base and HWE share, 2025
Section 4 · Registration & Credit
In most worker-size categories, the average institutional loan held by female-headed establishments remains lower than that held by male-headed establishments.
Evidence shows that key barriers are both demand- and supply-side and include limited awareness and information gaps, lack of collateral and guarantors, inadequate commercial evidence for accessing larger-ticket loans, and informality. Formal credit products and processes also often fail to adequately address the specific needs of female-headed establishments.
Limited access to formal credit remains a critical constraint to the growth and sustainability of female-headed establishments. With appropriate support, GoWEs can progressively access larger loans, expand operations, and generate additional employment opportunities, particularly for women, thereby enhancing their economic contribution.
↓ The evidence for this take follows in Insights 4.1 and 4.2.
Female-headed OAEs have low registration rates across industries. The gender gap is smaller among hired-worker establishments, where female-headed establishments lead in trade and other services
Only 3.7% of female-headed OAEs are registered, compared to 23.3% of male-headed OAEs
Manufacturing has the widest gender gap in OAE registration, and 98.8% of female-headed manufacturing establishments are OAEs. Among HWEs, female-headed HWEs have higher registration rates than male-headed HWEs in the 10–14 worker-size category and above.
Female-headed OAEs trail male-headed OAEs on registration, while the pattern reverses for HWEs
In trade, 23.7% of female-headed OAEs are registered, against 36.5% of male-headed OAEs. Among HWEs, registration rates are similar for both genders in the 1–2 worker-size category, but higher for female-headed HWEs in every other worker-size category, with the widest gap in the 6–9 worker-size category.
Female-headed OAEs have lower registration rates than male-headed OAEs, but the pattern reverses for HWEs in four of the five worker-size categories
Only 8.5% of female-headed OAEs in other services are registered, compared to 25.7% of male-headed OAEs. Among HWEs, female-headed HWEs have higher registration rates than male-headed HWEs in four of the five worker-size categories, the exception being the 6–9 worker-size category.
Registration rate, by establishment type
Female-headed OAEs hold substantially smaller institutional loans than male-headed OAEs, while the gap among HWEs varies by industry
Male-headed establishments hold larger average loans than female-headed establishments in every worker-size category except 3–5 workers
Among OAEs with institutional loans, female-headed establishments hold an average of ₹50.1 thousand, compared to ₹1.6 lakh for male-headed establishments. Among HWEs, female-headed establishments hold larger average loans only in the 3–5 worker-size category. The widest gender gap is observed in the 15+ worker-size category.
Female-headed OAEs hold smaller institutional loans than male-headed OAEs, while the pattern varies across worker-size categories among HWEs
Among OAEs with institutional loans, female-headed establishments hold an average of ₹1.1 lakh, compared to ₹2.9 lakh for male-headed establishments. In contrast, female-headed HWEs hold larger average loans than male-headed HWEs in three of the five worker-size categories.
Institutional loan sizes are broadly similar across genders for HWEs, except in the 15+ worker-size category
Female-headed OAEs hold average institutional loans of ₹1.4 lakh, compared to ₹3.1 lakh for male-headed OAEs. Among HWEs, loan sizes are broadly similar across genders up to the 10–14 worker-size category, but diverge sharply in the 15+ worker-size category, where male-headed HWEs hold average loans of ₹88.0 lakh, compared to ₹28.5 lakh for female-headed HWEs.
Average institutional loan, by establishment type
Conclusion
The constraint on women’s enterprise in India lies less in the number of establishments than in their ability to scale. The large existing base, particularly in manufacturing, offers significant job-creation potential. Yet, despite well-documented gender barriers, existing support remains fragmented and does not adequately address women’s specific needs and constraints. Addressing these gaps requires targeted, bundled and gender-responsive interventions, grounded in evidence and focused on measurable outcomes, such as turnover growth and job creation.
Given the variation in outcomes across states, one approach is to anchor interventions, tailored to local contexts, in state governments. Convening departments and ecosystem partners to deliver coordinated support can provide women entrepreneurs with integrated access to the resources needed to scale.
A second approach is to anchor interventions in a clearly defined market constraint and a committed market actor, testing gender-responsive solutions and scaling what works. Our experience shows that early government engagement can enable successful models to scale.
- Units: in charts, K = thousand, M = million and L = lakh (1 lakh = 100,000); in text these are written in full. Rupee (₹) values are shown in lakh; values below ₹1 lakh are shown in thousand. Figures may not add up due to rounding.
- Source: Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) 2022–23 and 2025, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) (all charts). The Insight 3.1 OAE and HWE maps also use Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) population projections (see below). Figures cover proprietary establishments.
- HWE = hired-worker establishment (at least one hired worker on a fairly regular basis); OAE = own-account establishment (no hired worker on a fairly regular basis).
- Survey periods: ASUSE 2022–23 covers October 2022 to September 2023; ASUSE 2025 covers January to December 2025.
- Proprietary establishment = an establishment owned by a single individual (proprietor). Partnerships, self-help groups, trusts and other ownership types are not included.
- Female-headed (male-headed) establishment = a proprietary establishment whose proprietor is a woman (man). MoSPI reports these as female-owned proprietary establishments.
- Hired worker = a worker employed on a fairly regular basis and paid wages or salary. Working owners, unpaid family members and other helpers are not hired workers.
- Gross value added (GVA) = value of an establishment’s output minus the value of the inputs used to produce it, for one year.
- Growth-Oriented Women Enterprises (GoWEs) = women-owned establishments with an established scale of operations, ambition and growth potential.
- Establishments with up to three years of operation = establishments in operation for up to three years and still operating at the time of the survey; shares are of each gender’s establishments in this group.
- Gross value added (GVA) chart: values rounded to one decimal. GVA ratio = average GVA of HWEs ÷ average GVA of OAEs.
- Newly covered or reclassified activities (Insights 1.2 and 2.1): this pack compares ASUSE 2022–23 with ASUSE 2025, so "newly covered in the 2025 survey" means activities that are in ASUSE 2025 but were not in ASUSE 2022–23. Domestic workers serving households (National Industrial Classification, NIC 96999, 96098) and home tutors (NIC 85999) were first brought into ASUSE coverage in the 2023–24 round and remain covered in 2025; real estate (NIC 68) was reclassified in ASUSE 2025. Together they account for 3.3 million of the 13.3 million net addition. Excluding them from both years, the net addition is 10.0 million, of which 44.7% is female-headed. In Insight 2.1, these activities change only other services; comparing only activities covered in both rounds, the female-headed HWE share there rose from 10.7% to 11.1%, and across all industries it fell from 3.4% to 3.3%.
- Map bands (Insight 3.1, OAE and HWE maps): each band includes its lower value; for example, 40 falls in “40 to 50”.
- Working-age women (Insight 3.1, OAE and HWE maps): women aged 15–59. Source: Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011–2036 (National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), July 2020). Method: (1) working-age share of the female population = women aged 15–59 ÷ all women, from Table 18 (projected population by age and sex), for 2021 and 2026; (2) the 2025 share is linearly interpolated (2021 share + 4/5 of the 2021–26 change); (3) working-age women = 2025 share × Table 8 female population as on 1 March 2025; (4) rate = female-headed OAEs (or HWEs) ÷ working-age women × 1,000. Table 18 has no age breakdown for Goa, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu; these use the India share, so their rates are estimates.
- Industry and sector: ASUSE groups all activities into three broad industries following the National Industrial Classification (NIC) 2008: manufacturing = Section C (divisions 10–33); trade = Section G (divisions 45–47); other services = Sections E (36–39), H (49–53), I (55–56), J (58–63), K (64–66), L (68), M (69–75), N (77–82), P (85), Q (86–88), R (90–93) and S (94–96). Each industry is made up of sectors; in this pack, a sector is a two-digit NIC division (for example, wearing apparel within manufacturing, or retail trade within trade). Sector names follow the NIC 2008 division titles, with “Manufacture of” and qualifiers such as “except …” dropped for brevity; hover over a sector for its full title.
- Sample size: in Section 2 (Sectors), every sector shown across the three industries has a sample size of at least 30 establishments (n ≥ 30). State samples are smaller: in the Insight 3.1 state profiles (hover cards), a sector is ranked among a state’s top three only if it has at least 10 sampled establishments in that state (n ≥ 10).
- Trade, 15+ worker-size category: the female-headed HWE figures rest on 30 sampled establishments; read the average loan (₹114.2 lakh) with care.
- Registered = registered under at least one Act or authority, as recorded in ASUSE (for example Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Udyam portal, food safety, or a state trade licence). Registration rate = registered establishments ÷ all establishments in the group, in %.
- Institutional sources: term-lending institutions, government schemes, commercial and cooperative banks, microfinance institutions and self-help groups (SHGs), and other institutional agencies. Loans from money lenders, suppliers, friends and relatives are not counted.
- Institutional loans are amounts outstanding on the last day of the reference period, as estimated aggregates; they measure loans held on the survey date, not necessarily new loans taken. An establishment holds an institutional loan if it reports a collateral-free, subsidised or other institutional loan. Average loan = institutional loan outstanding ÷ establishments holding one, in ₹ lakh.
- Worker-size categories: HWEs are grouped by number of workers (1–2, 3–5, 6–9, 10–14 and 15+). The categories 15–19, 20–24 and 25+ are pooled as 15+ because few female-headed HWEs fall in each.