Council on Energy, Environment and Water Integrated | International | Independent
Suggested citation: Kabiraj, Mousumi and Divya Gaur. 2025. Women Mean Business: A Playbook for Driving Women’s Participation in India’s Green Economy. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
Women continue to face multiple challenges in accessing economic opportunities — from limited access to decent jobs and wage disparities to the burden of balancing paid work with household responsibilities (Patnaik, Jha, and Jain 2021; Rani 2021). These persistent barriers significantly hinder their full participation in the economy. Unlocking their potential requires more than intent — it calls for a transformative shift in how businesses, startups, and ecosystem actors such as market accelerators, funders and investors approach gender inclusion.
This gender playbook serves as a practical, step-by-step guide to help social startups and enterprises, accelerators, development practitioners, financiers, and investors integrate women meaningfully into green and sustainable businesses. Designed as a comprehensive and user-friendly digital resource, the playbook offers actionable tools, success indicators, and downloadable templates to support implementation.
The playbook features real-world success stories from the Powering Livelihoods initiative, a joint programme by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Villgro Innovations Foundation (Villgro), focused on scaling clean-tech livelihood solutions such as solar dryers, solar silk-reeling machines, and others. To ensure wider representation and learning, the team also collaborated with SEWA Bharat and Development Alternatives, organisations that have long been at the forefront of empowering women across diverse geographies.
Women leaders have shown promise in improving business performance. A survey by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2019 – covering shopkeeping, sales or trade activities, manufacturing, construction, education, financial/insurance activities, and other economic services – observed that when enterprises have a gender-inclusive business culture and policies, they experienced 63 per cent increase in business productivity and profitability. Additionally, 60 per cent enhancement in the ability to attract and retain talent and a 59 per cent improvement in creativity, innovation and openness (ILO 2019).
Furthermore, globally, funders and investors are increasingly attracted to ethical and gender-inclusive funding, recognising its dual benefits to business and society. With a gender-smart approach, you can seize the opportunity to access the pool of funding by showcasing its tangible impact on gender-related outcomes, effectively aligning its initiatives with the evolving priorities of the investment landscape. Thus, by breaking down gender barriers, you can access diverse skills and expertise, strengthening your workforce and overall competitiveness.
Businesses face challenges in driving women’s participation. Within the Powering Livelihoods (PL) programme, a joint initiative by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Villgro Innovations Foundation (Villgro), we have identified key challenges businesses face for women’s inclusion in their business activities which are: (i) inadequate gender parity among the employees with men outnumbering women in almost all the departments; (ii) key stakeholders not being aware of womencentric initiatives of your business; (iii) lack of focus on women as a customer segment; (iv) low-level adoption of tech products by women customers; and (v) not paying attention to women micro- or nanoentrepreneurs as partners to your business growth.
We conceived this playbook to address the challenges to women’s participation in green businesses.
We are presenting this playbook to drive enhanced women’s participation in your business operations and value chain by focusing on a few actionable strategies.
It gives actionable strategies for driving women’s participation in your business value chain or operations and provides a step-by-step guidance on how to do implement these strategies. It comprises actionable tools, monitoring indicators, and impactful stories, which make it a holistic resource to enhance women’s participation in your business. You can also download the tools and respective checklists for easy reference.
(i) Social startups involved in green businesses; (ii) Market accelerators; (iii) Development practitioners or government institutions (iv) Investors, financiers, or donors
It is organised in the form of five key focus areas to mainstream women in your business value chain. Each focus area is mapped to a strategy, which is executed and tracked through multiple tools (Figure ES3). The tools comprise an action plan, a list of required resources and indicators to assess your progress to help you accomplish the following:
First, you first identify the focus areas to enhancing the participation of women in the operations or value chain and map your focus areas to the suggested strategies. You then apply the tools associated with a strategy to accomplish your objectives.
Take the first step today: download the detailed tools, implement the strategies, and drive meaningful change in your business operations. Together, let’s create a more inclusive and sustainable future for women in business!
The first step to enhancing women’s participation is a data-driven assessment to help you identify potential gaps and opportunities for women’s inclusion.
Strategy 1: Integrate data-driven gender-first business practices and policies
How do I attract investors’ and funders’ interest in supporting initiatives to promote women in my business?
Gathering data on how your interventions are gender-inclusive and have the potential to impact women positively can make it an attractive proposition for investors, making them excited about your initiatives.
Strategy 2: Strengthen gender-impact dissemination strategies
Women as a customer segment is not usually the focus of businesses, though a huge untapped potential exists, especially among women in rural and suburban areas. By collecting gender-disaggregated data, an insight into women’s usage of tech products can be gained. Usually, the uptake of new technologies is low among rural women. Organising local events that engage women and demos of productive use technologies that women can use can be explored to increase women’s engagement with tech products. You can also leverage the existing women’s network of on-ground channel partners to enhance the outreach of your technology to women customers.
Strategy 3: Build partnerships to improve women’s access to technology
How can I enhance the confidence and trust of potential women customers to adopt technology products?
Rural women are encumbered by several socio-cultural barriers, which limit their exposure and experience with modern livelihood technologies. To address this challenge, you can adopt initiatives such as deploying women champions from the local communities providing technology demos and building peer-to-peer interactions. In addition, you can also create inclusive marketing materials, highlighting stories of successful women users. This will help enhance their confidence and their purchase decisions.
Strategy 4: Provide technology demos and create gender-inclusive collaterals
In what ways can emerging women nano-/micro-entrepreneurs be supported to help them run sustainable businesses?
Women nano-/micro-entrepreneurs, especially from rural/peri-urban areas, often need end-to-end support to sustain their businesses. The support should be in the form of affordable credit facilities, access to livelihood technologies, market linkages, and handholding and training. Blended finance, buy-back guarantees, and well-designed entrepreneurship training offer additional support to those women’s business initiatives.
Strategy 5: Build a supportive ecosystem of end-to-end solutions for resilient ‘shepreneurs’
This section highlights inspiring case stories of women nano-/micro-entrepreneurs associated with CEEW, DA, or SEWA, who have received various forms of support, such as financing, training, and more, to enhance their livelihoods.
Babita Raheja’s journey from Madhya Pradesh to becoming a pioneering clean energy entrepreneur is an evidence to the transformative potential of women’s leadership. As the co-founder of Raheja Solar Food Processing, Babita has built a successful startup using solar drying technologies, emerging as a role model for thousands of rural women.
By training over 4,500 women to adopt solar dryers, Babita is building self-reliance, enhancing rural incomes, and driving climate-friendly technologies from the grassroots. Her work shows that when women lead in clean energy, they deliver inclusive, impactful, and community-driven progress. Her success story is a testament that with the end-to-end support—access to technology, finance, and mentorship—women can become powerful agents of change.
As Chief of Staff at Resham Sutra Pvt. Ltd., Upasna Jain is creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for rural women using solar silk reeling machines. She aims to build an inclusive ecosystem within the startup and its field operations by ensuring master trainers in rural areas are women.
She also initiated the concept of Reshamdoots—young, digitally skilled women who support spinners in yarn production, quality control, and uploading their products to the Gram Sootra App, an online marketplace. She also influenced internal hiring practices, with a strong focus on recruiting women into roles traditionally dominated by men—such as technical support, shop-floor workers, among others. Upasna’s efforts demonstrate how clean energy technologies, when combined with inclusive practices, can transform both lives and livelihoods.
Nafiza is a 38-year-old woman from Gurusandi village in Mirzapur. In a local community gathering, she learned about e-rickshaws from Development Alternatives’ field coordinator. She also learned about the Safe Mobility project, supported by the Work for Progress project, a joint initiative of Development Alternatives, La Caixa Foundation, and Fundación ISS. The project focuses on creating dignified and meaningful livelihood opportunities for marginalised women and youth in rural India through enterprise development.
She also received a three-day training course that included basic vehicle orientation, one-to-one training with the trainer, sessions on vehicle repair, traffic rules, among others. Upon completion of the training, she received a training certificate. After the training, she started her e-rickshaw business, earning a monthly income of USD 115–120. Nafiza actively inspires other women to conquer their fears, seize opportunities, and liberate themselves from societal norms.
Ruby from Chirgaon, Jhansi, aimed to start a business for sustainable income but faced setbacks due to limited skills, knowledge, and experience. Yet, she was not the one to give up. After attending an entrepreneurship awareness programme by Development Alternatives in 2021 supported by HSBC, she connected with officials from the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), who encouraged her to become a Business Correspondent (BC) Sakhi.
Motivated by the idea of such a non-traditional business, she worked hard and received training on essential banking services at a rural self-employment training institute (RSETI). She also obtained a loan of INR 75,000 and became an associate of Fino Bank, which provided her a micro-ATM machine. She now operates as a village-level BC Sakhi and provides door-to-door financial services to individuals in her village. In the last two months alone, she has been able to provide cash withdrawal services amounting to INR 40,000. Today, Ruby earns, monthly INR 25,000 on her own and proudly claims that entrepreneurship has given her the capacity to provide quality education for her child. By becoming the first woman in the area to provide financial services, Ruby is a role model for others in her community.
Premlata ben, a 38-year-old micro-entrepreneur and community leader, resides in Rampura, Bikaner. Proficient in sewing and papad making, she has always been determined to earn a livelihood and support her family.
Her life transformed when she encountered SEWA Rajasthan during a youth training event in Bikaner’s Sarvodaya Basti. SEWA facilitated her entry into a selfhelp group and helped her secure a INR 3,000 loan for household expenses. Through the Udyami programme, supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), she discovered the Chiranjeevi Health Scheme, which provided health insurance coverage. Participation in digital and financial literacy workshops under this programme equipped her with digital payment skills and enabled her to showcase her sewing work to customers via WhatsApp. Alongside her income from SEWA Rajasthan, Premlata ben earns an additional INR 4,000 monthly from sewing and papad sales. This newfound financial stability empowered her family to acquire a new home in Rampura, Bikaner.
Note: Ben is a suffix used after a person’s first name as a mark of respect at SEWA. It is a common cultural practice in Gujarat.
Rita ben, a 45-year-old grassroots leader from Phulia, West Bengal, started crafting and selling cotton sarees locally. Unsatisfied with her earnings, she joined SEWA West Bengal in 2020 and learned about health, social security schemes, and business opportunities. In 2021, she participated in an agarbatti-making (incense sticks) training programme organised by SEWA and Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC) through USAID’s Udyami programme.
Rita ben saw this as a chance to pivot her business and collaborate with like-minded women in her community. She encouraged others to attend the training. Upon completing the training, Rita ben and five fellow SEWA members pooled their resources to launch an agarbatti business. They purchased raw materials and handled packaging. Their sales journey began within the community and expanded to local stores, self-help affinity groups (SAGs), and stalls at SEWA West Bengal’s exhibitions. She believes that collective solutions can be used to overcome challenges and hopes her story inspires women across India to pursue selfemployment and attain financial independence.
The playbook equips social startups, development practitioners, accelerators, and others with actionable strategies and tools to transform the way they mainstream women in their business value chains. Through suggested strategies and real-life success stories, it demonstrates the transformative impact of gender inclusion on business growth, and innovation. However, the journey towards gender inclusivity is not just about adopting tools—it requires a commitment to action. To truly empower women in your business value chains, take the following steps:
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