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In India’s villages and cities, women are the backbone of our economy, tending farms, managing small businesses, running community projects and shaping the future of families. Their contributions already power much of India’s growth story, even if official statistics do not always capture their impact. By recognizing and supporting this energy, India has a chance to unleash one of its greatest strengths: a female workforce whose potential, once fully visible and valued, can transform our economy and society.
Artificial intelligence (AI), if deployed intelligently, can help rewrite that story. AI is not just about self-driving cars or futuristic robots. It can recognize patterns in large amounts of data, match workers to opportunities and predict market trends. For women in India, especially in rural and informal sectors, these capabilities can turn invisible work into visible economic power.
Some early examples point to what is possible. In Maharashtra, a pilot with women farmers has used AI-powered weather and soil analysis to plan crops more efficiently. Farmers received accurate planting schedules and pest alerts in Marathi, increasing yields and reducing losses. In Tamil Nadu, self-help groups (SHGs) have found better ways to price handicrafts by experimenting with AI-based pricing tools that connect directly with buyers through digital marketplaces. These are small initiatives, but they show how AI can bridge the information gap that women have long been deprived of.
The second will be Digital Green’s AI-powered assistant ‘Farmer Chat’ that will provide localised, language-ready, climate-smart agriculture advice by voice, text and video. In Odisha and other states, women farmers using these services can access crop advice, market information and troubleshooting at the time of need, reducing time wasted in trial-and-error and increasing yields and income. By making agricultural knowledge accessible in local languages and modes (voice/video), the platform recognizes women’s constraints (time, mobility, literacy) and transforms day-to-day agricultural work into a high-profit activity.
These examples are small, but they indicate a profound change that AI can bridge the long-standing information gap that women have been deprived of for decades. An AI-powered platform could map women’s informal contributions, such as sewing clothes for local markets or cultivating small kitchen gardens, and convert them into measurable data points. This visibility can make it easier for banks to make loans, for local governments to create relevant training, or for cooperatives to negotiate better prices. Imagine an AI assistant that not only guides a farmer about the best crop to sow, but also connects him to potential buyers and affordable logistics, all in his language and within his means.
But technology alone is not the solution. Blindness to bias is a fundamental flaw in AI technology, as impartiality is not inherently built into these systems. Many official datasets, product designs, and public services are built on biased or incomplete data. Without time-use data, disaggregated usage metrics, and contextual insights, AI systems risk replicating or exacerbating existing invisibilities. AI can just as easily replicate the biases present in the data it learns from. If existing records underestimate women’s work, an algorithm could reinforce their invisibility.
Access is another barrier; Millions of women still lack a smartphone, reliable internet or the digital literacy to navigate apps. Without safeguards, AI could widen the gap rather than bridge it.
This is where India’s strong grassroots network can make a difference. Panchayats, Anganwadi workers and self-help groups have deep local trust and knowledge. Training women from these networks as community technology ambassadors can help bridge the digital divide. Creating AI interfaces in regional languages, designing voice-based tools for non-literate users, and keeping algorithms transparent are all essential steps. Public-private collaboration, where companies provide the technology but communities shape its use, can ensure that AI empowers rather than exploits.
Policy frameworks should evolve beyond measuring success simply through enrollment numbers or delivery of cash transfers, and instead focus on more meaningful outcomes such as increased bargaining power within households and communities, greater income stability and diversification, and improved market access with fair participation. Institutions such as NITI Aayog and state governments can play an important role by integrating AI-powered insights into skilling programmes, rural credit policies and cooperative planning, thereby ensuring that women’s contributions are recognized and rewarded. Also, private companies must move beyond viewing women merely as consumers and begin accepting and supporting them as producers, entrepreneurs and innovators who are at the center of India’s economic growth and social transformation.
Economists have long argued that increasing women’s participation in the workforce could add trillions of dollars to India’s GDP. But the deeper truth beyond the statistics is that acknowledging women’s labor is about dignity and fairness. It’s about recognizing that the unpaid and unseen work that sustains families and communities is not charity, it is the backbone of the economy.
India is at a turning point. As AI reshapes industries from manufacturing to finance, there is a risk that women will again be left out of the conversation. But there is also an opportunity to design a future where technology sees them, values them and enhances their contributions. Empowering women through AI is not just a technical challenge; It is a moral and economic imperative.
The next big leap in India’s growth will not come from another welfare check or cash transfer. It will come when algorithms learn to see women who have been invisible for too long, and when their work finally moves out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
Empowering women through AI is not just a technical challenge. It is a moral, economic and generational imperative.
This article is written by Tausif Alam, aide to New Delhi MP (Rajya Sabha) Sujit Kumar, and Ruchi Tripathi, senior policy aide.
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