Telangana district tops India, women make up 78% of informal workers

Nirmal district, in northern Telangana, tops a new ranking: 78% of all its informal workers are women, the highest of any district in the country. Nanded, immediately across the state border in Maharashtra, is ranked 288th in the country, with women making up only 31% of its informal workers.

According to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Thursday and analysed by The Indian Express, the 10 districts with the highest share of women in informal workers are all from south India or the north-east.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the list is Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag, where only 6.7% of informal workers are women. As per the data, the top-10 districts are either in Telangana, Manipur, Meghalaya, or Mizoram, “reflecting the significant role played by women in the unincorporated sector in these states”, MoSPI said in its report.

Overall, women make up at least 33% of the total informal workforce in 237 districts. While districts from the south and north-east see major participation from women, they pay very little. For instance, the best-paying district in the top-25 with women making up at least 50% of the informal workforce is Meghalaya’s South West Khasi Hills, where the per hired worker emolument is Rs 1.7 lakh, only 35% or so higher than the all-India average of around Rs 1.3 lakh.

Meanwhile, workers in Dehradun get paid the most, with emoluments per hired worker at Rs 4.6 lakh. Only 19% of workers in the district of Dehradun are women. The new report provides data for 757 districts. “However, the geographical coverage of some districts and number of districts may differ from the current administrative configuration due to subsequent changes in district boundaries, names and/or the creation of new districts,” it added.

Based on the data collected from the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) of 2025, this is the first time that MoSPI has released district-level estimates from a large-scale national survey. The enterprises covered are from the unincorporated non-agricultural sector, which broadly comprises establishments operating in manufacturing, trade, and other services in the informal sector.

Unsurprisingly, districts with greatest women participation are those with the highest percentage of female owned proprietary establishments. Nirmal tops this list again, with almost 80% of its proprietary establishments owned by women.

According to Geeta Singh Rathore, Director General of MoSPI’s National Sample Survey, the unincorporated non-agricultural sector contributes “significantly” to employment, livelihoods, and economic activity. The main ASUSE 2025 report was released earlier this year in May after a ‘fact sheet’ was made public in March.

As per the survey, the total number of unincorporated establishments rose by 58.5 lakh in 2025 to 7.92 crore. This was a smaller increase than the 83.5 lakh in the 12 months ended September 2024. As a result, fewer jobs were also created: 74.5 lakh in 2025 compared to 1.1 crore in October 2023-September 2024.

The district-level data comes after MoSPI in June released a report on the informal sector in India’s 46 cities with a population of over 10 lakh as per Census 2011. Since those figures were based solely on urban areas, a district which shares the name with one of those cities – such as Howrah – may have different estimates as district-level figures in the latest report cover rural as well as urban areas.

Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis).

Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More