Green jobs: how Indian women can play a major role in the renewables drive

The International Labour Organization (ILO) characterises green jobs as “decent jobs that contribute to the preservation or restoration of the environment”. The ILO indicates that transformations in energy production and consumption could generate millions of new jobs worldwide, with India alone expected to create 3.7 million new green jobs by 2025. 

Furthermore, the transition to a low-carbon economy is expected to generate approximately 35 million green jobs in India by 2047. 

These opportunities are distributed across various sectors, including manufacturing, construction, renewable energy, energy efficiency and automobiles, all of which have historically seen lower female participation in the workforce.

A new analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that there are fewer women working in sustainability industries despite growing employment opportunities in these ‘green’ sectors. The report highlighted that women are disproportionately left behind in securing jobs in sectors such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and waste management, forcing them to remain in more polluting sectors. 

Restrictive social norms

The Annual Survey of Industries for 2019–20 found that women are predominantly employed in sectors such as apparel, textiles, leather, food and tobacco. Restrictive social norms frequently confine women to specific roles, therefore limiting their access to technical and leadership positions within green industries, which seek to improve environmental sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

A study in 2023 by India’s Skill Council for Green Jobs indicated that 85 per cent of the training for green skills was secured by and delivered to men while over 90 per cent of women believed that social norms limited their participation in training for green jobs. These norms include the belief that women are not suited for certain technical roles, plus safety concerns and familial constraints. 

Moreover, to succeed in the green job market, women must cultivate a comprehensive skill set that integrates technical expertise with personal qualities. Unfortunately, fewer young women opt to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), which are essential for thriving in the green economy. This trend is largely attributed to gender biases and societal norms, such as the stereotype that engineering is a male-dominated field. Research consistently demonstrates that girls in India often exhibit lower self-confidence in these areas.

The underrepresentation of women in green jobs in India is a significant concern. A 2019 gender report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found that while women constitute 32 per cent of the global clean energy workforce, this percentage drops to a mere 11 per cent in India.

Poor data on women’s involvement in green energy sector

Additionally, the absence of gender-disaggregated worker data throughout the renewable energy value chain poses a considerable obstacle, impeding efforts to comprehend and effectively tackle existing gender disparities among the workforce. 

Experts say that women account for nearly 48 per cent of India’s total population; however, there is a notable scarcity of information regarding their involvement in the green energy sector. Reliable gender-specific data is essential to overcoming prevalent barriers, such as limited access to financing, inadequate knowledge and skills, the absence of gender-sensitive policies, inequitable asset ownership and socio-cultural constraints, says Sameer Kwatra, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s India programme, which focuses on promoting clean energy, clean transportation, public health and locally relevant climate solutions.

A report by McKinsey suggests that bridging the gender gap in employment in all industry sectors in India could contribute an additional $700 billion to the GDP by 2025 (McKinsey Global Institute, 2018). In the fields of green energy and electric vehicles, this could result in improved productivity, heightened innovation and accelerated growth within those industries.

Acknowledging the importance of boosting gender diversity in employment, the Indian government has initiated several programmes aimed at enhancing women’s participation in the workforce. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has prioritised gender mainstreaming in its policies, seeking to promote the involvement of women in renewable energy initiatives. In addition, the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) recognises gender inclusion in the electric vehicle manufacturing and related support industries as a fundamental goal.

Success stories

There are also numerous success stories illustrating the potential benefits of enhancing women’s involvement in the green energy and electric vehicle (EV) transition. For example, Gujarat’s Rooftop Solar Programme – which provides subsidies to encourage householders and farmers in Gujarat state to install solar panels on their homes and land – has witnessed considerable participation from women, with households led by women adopting solar energy solutions at a higher rate.

Women in Energy (WE) is an initiative from India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) that aims to connect, educate and inspire women to take up roles in the clean energy and green technology industries. Through the WE initiative, IESA is working towards promoting women’s participation and strengthening gender diversity and equity in emerging areas like energy storage, e-Mobility (the use of electric power to propel vehicles, ships, and other transportation) and the broader renewables sector.

Netra Walawalkar, vice-president of Customised Energy Solutions, India, and co-founder of IESA, said that while female leaders are at the forefront of India’s clean energy transition, “we also need to focus on gender disparity, empowering women for technical and leadership roles, and removing gender bias for opportunities in the green economy”.    

IESA, which is looking to enhance women’s roles in India’s net zero goal by advocating for workforce participation policies, is also championing gender diversity in the clean tech and EV sectors by submitting recommendations from over 100 women leaders. 

Key recommendations include analysing ESG ratings to assess women’s representation in the workforce, implementing strict anti-harassment policies and introducing flexible work schedules for women with caregiving responsibilities. Additionally, IESA emphasises the need for upskilling initiatives and dismantling gender biases in technical roles, alongside encouraging open communication in hiring practices.

Barriers to female employment in green industries

Commentators say there are a number of barriers that prevent women from gaining jobs in India’s green industries. For example, although the country’s fast-expanding use of solar power has created numerous roles for installers and those who help maintain the equipment post-installation, these roles require schooling up to a certain age, which many girls in rural India do not have. Instead, many are forced to leave school early to work in agriculture, including family smallholdings.

Also, while some women have joined local government-sponsored training courses that teach the skills required to install and maintain solar energy panels, many of the larger-scale solar power installations are in remote locations with poor transport links. The sites are also largely male-dominated and lack female toilets, all of which discourages young women from taking up the roles.

Also, coordinators at centres offering green skills training have reportedly told women applicants that the jobs in the solar power section are in remote locations and may not be ideal for them, which has led to very few signing up for the training programmes.

“Women are able to do this work, but the conditions are not conducive,” Arpit Sharma, CEO of India’s Skill Council for Green Jobs, told Climate Home News. “We are speaking to industry about creating at least washrooms on site, and training centres to induct more women,” he explained.

A new LinkedIn report estimates that by 2030, nearly one in five jobs requiring green skills could be difficult to fill due to skills shortages, so in India, improving the female participation rate in green skills training and green jobs could help the county avoid this shortfall. In fact, with India aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 and make a total shift to clean energy by 2050, getting more women into green careers will be crucial in meeting these ambitious targets, argue many commentators.

“Creating a workforce from the community should be the goal,” Santosh Patnaik of Climate Action Network South Asia told Climate Home News. “Industry needs to train students from the beginning. This would plug [the] demand-supply gap in skills. But that level of planning is not happening,” he said.

India recently launched a project aimed at installing solar panels on 10 million homes to provide access to free electricity and build renewable energy capacity and is currently training young people across the country to gain the necessary skills to install and maintain them.

Commentators say that while large-scale solar plant infrastructure projects currently do not provide sufficient job opportunities for women, small-scale decentralised projects carried out at local level, such as the rooftop solar project for 10 million homes, provide an ideal opportunity for women to enter the renewables sector. They argue these types of local projects present an opportunity to boost female participation in the green industry because the necessary basic skills are taught locally and the work is generally in the vicinity of the women’s homes – avoiding the need to travel to remote areas to work on large scale, male-dominated, renewable energy construction sites.

However, Climate Home News says some coordinators of the training told them they were recruiting men as there was use of heavy machinery, as well as lifting and installation of panels on rooftops – tasks they believed were difficult for women.

In a blog for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an international environmental campaign group, Akanksha Golchha, clean energy and E-mobility lead at NRDC India, said India’s growing focus on green technology and green growth provides “the chance to boost the representation of women in the renewable sector”.

She argues that in general the representation of women in renewables industry remains low, although women are marginally better represented in the design and pre-construction phases of renewable energy roll-out in comparison to the construction and operations phases. However, she says women are moderately more represented in areas such as distributed renewable energy (DRE), where small-scale solar capacity is installed in homes and businesses, because the equipment is installed near women’s homes, making it easier for them to get involved in the work.

She adds that DRE projects have “immense job creating and entrepreneurship potential. Investing in DRE and local solutions where women are already more prevalent can help bridge the gender gap in renewable energy jobs.”   

Skill development

Golchha says the central and state governments, NGOs and renewable technology companies should therefore focus on developing the skills of women, so they have the necessary expertise to enter and participate in the renewable energy sector.  

“A skill ecosystem can comprise of multiple factors such as online or in-person trainings, access to materials and mentors, with a larger objective of empowering women to participate in livelihood opportunities,” she wrote. She added that approaches such as providing online training courses in local languages and career guidance can equip women with the necessary skills and knowledge required for active participation in the renewable energy workforce.

Golchha gives the example of an initiative where green energy firm ReNew Power partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India to train 1,000 low-income female salt-pan workers to work as solar panel and solar-pump technicians in a rural area of Gujarat as a model that could be more widely adopted to get women into green jobs.

She adds that since women are often required to stay at home to care for children and elderly relatives, providing training programmes that focus on entrepreneurship can enable women to actively engage in home-based work opportunities in the green transition. “For example, selling high quality fodder in the market that is grown using solar fodder systems at home can help provide more flexibility for women entrepreneurs who also have caregiving responsibilities,” she writes.          

Poor female representation at COP29

Meanwhile, the COP29 (United Nations Climate Change Conference 2024) in Baku scheduled 21 November as ‘gender day’ to focus on women’s participation in global climate action. However, female representation at the decision-making level of COP was very poor, with just eight of the 78 world leaders participating in COP29 being women.

In addition, there are further examples of poor female representation in the decision-making process at previous COP summits. The 2023 COP summit (COP28) featured 15 women among a total of 133. Women constituted 35 per cent of national party delegates at COP27, a decrease from COP24 (38 per cent) four years earlier. Also, since the first United Nations climate summit in 1995, only five women have been appointed as COP presidents. Commentators say this shows that despite COP aiming for inclusivity, the negotiation table still lacks diversity. 

“Climate change is sexist,” said Francesca Rhodes, senior policy adviser on climate and gender at CARE International UK in a press statement. “At every level, there is gender inequality in decision making around how to tackle the climate crisis, whilst at the same time the impacts are being felt strongest by women and girls already facing poverty and marginalisation.

“We need world leaders to ensure the priorities and experiences of those on the frontlines are what drives outcomes at COP.”

A 2009 UN report stated that women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men – primarily as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change. It added that women don’t have many of the freedoms they require to adapt to climate crises due to persistent social, economic and political setbacks.

Meanwhile, a separate report by UN Women highlighted another concern: a prediction that that climate change could drive at least 158 million women and girls into poverty by the year 2050, representing an increase of 16 million compared to men and boys. The challenges are likely to be exacerbated by displacement caused by extreme weather events, including devastating floods, storms, heatwaves, cyclones and droughts. Research indicates that women and children are 14 times more likely to perish in disasters linked to climate change than their male counterparts. For example, in the 2004 tsunami, 70 per cent of the 230,000 fatalities were women.

At the political level, research shows clear linkages between women’s leadership and action to tackle climate change. For example, studies have found that countries with higher proportions of women in parliament are more likely to ratify international environmental treaties and have stricter climate policies. At the local level, the participation of women in natural resource management is associated with better resource governance and conservation outcomes.

In business, gender-diverse firms tend to have better environmental reporting and climate governance than their peers and make more investments in renewable power generation and energy efficiency improvement.

“Diverse perspectives are necessary for solid climate action, particularly those of women, who may provide important ideas on how to make the transition to a sustainable world more equitable and inclusive,” said a climate policy and sustainability analyst. 

“Gender justice is not just a progressive add-on we can include for tackling climate change. Women need to be given a place at the table as more than an afterthought.”