Work from Home & Remote Work Bringing More Indian Women into the Workforce

By: Navya

Professional networking platformApna.co, sees 132% increase in number of female since last year, with the majority of them seeking remote employment. Here’s an in-depth look at the rising trend of WFH among Indian women.

For women in India, pursuing or resuming a career has always been challenging. For a very long time, social stigmas and taboos against working women have kept women out of the workforce in this nation. The biggest boost a developing economy may receive is from the increasing participation of women in the paid workforce.

The gender gap in any workplace culture is reduced by women's economic and financial inclusion in society, which also boosts collaboration and productivity. The pandemic condition of 2020–2021 has opened the door for more women to enter the workforce by giving them options to work from home in a variety of sectors. The Indian workforce's female participants, who either wish to continue their current profession or establish a new one in the future, benefits greatly from this work-from-home opportunity.

Government supports Work from home culture to boost the participation of women in the workforce.

By 2024–2025, according to the Hon. Prime Minister NarendraModi's vision, India would have a $5 trillion economy and be a global powerhouse. He stated again that it will be crucial for all workers to participate fully in 2022 if India is to become a global leader. Additionally, he said that remote work and flexible hours will be crucial to increasing the participation of women in the workforce and helping India to reach its economic objectives more quickly.

In the April–June quarter of FY23, the Indian economy grew by 13.5%, the fastest rate in the previous four quarters, according to latest government figures.

But efforts to make India a global leader and discussions about the country's evolving office structure shouldn't be excluded from the growing workforce and its female professionals.

2X increase in women looking for remote Jobs

Apna.co, India's leading jobs and professional networking platform, has researched the main trend of 2022 with more than 5.1 million women on the platform.

The number of female users on apna.co has increased by 132% since last year, with the majority of them seeking remote employment. In fact, the platform's data shows that over the final eight months of the year, the number of women looking for role requires remote work increased by a factor of twice.

According to Apna.co, the demand for work from home jobs and part-time jobs increased by 40% in Q2 2021. Women's participation hadincreased by 17% in telemarketing, 13% in sales, 12% in accounts, and 10% in teaching in part-time jobs compared to the previous quarter in 2021.

Less time spent commuting is the main driver of more women seeking remote jobs that offer flexible work schedules so they may manage family responsibilities and pursue additional sources of income from home, such as tutoring or running daycare centres.

According to a recent International Labour Organization (ILO) research, a sizable percentage of women often indicated being willing to accept jobs if they were offered near their homes. According to the ILO research, 34% of Indian women in rural regions and 28% of those in urban areas were open to working from home.

The most sought-after work from home positions are found in BPOs such as telemarketing or telesales, computer, data entry operators, executive roles such as business development, back office, admins, and office assistants, academic positions such as teachers and tutors, and roles related to finance, accounting, and marketing.

The most applications for work-from-home positions have been received in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow, Patna, and Jaipur, in addition to major metropolises like Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata.

Employers looking for candidates for remote work increased this year on apna.co. This year saw an upsurge in the number of WFH positions posted in cities like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, and Lucknow, demonstrating just how deeply remote work has permeated Bharat.

Along with working from home, more women are seeking for jobs in non-traditional fields like delivery partners, drivers, aircraft repair, and backend engineers, among others.

Manas Singh, Chief Business Officer of apna.co, discussed the new trend and said, "The flexibility and the convenience brought by remote working has the potential to inspire more professionals to join the workforce, further accelerating the economic engine of the country. apna.co is committed to bringing Prime Minister’s vision of making India a global leader to and will continue being a partner in writing India’s growth story,” he added.

Apna.co- Dependable Platform for Women

The most dependable platform for the nation's female workers has been apna.co. The site saw a 56 percent increase in the number of applications from women for various employment opportunities in compared to last year. Given the growing number of local remote employment opportunities, this figure is probably going to rise in the following months.

Apna.co currently has over 25 million users and is available in more than 70 cities. 3,00,000 employer partners in the nation rely on the platform to help them with their hiring needs.

Female users also demonstrated a propensity for establishing professional networks and dedicated time to doing so. Their interactions with colleagues in the industry and professional chats at apna became safe. In apna communities, women have been actively involved in politics, business, language study, telemarketing, back-office work, teaching, computer/data entry, beauticians, lab technicians, and cooking.