Women at the heart of Tamil Nadu’s factory economy | Let Me Explain 102 | Pooja Prasanna

Of the 14.9 lakh women working in registered factories across India, 6.3 lakh are in just one state — Tamil Nadu.

It’s one of those statistics that makes you stop.

Nearly half of India’s female factory workforce concentrated in a single state.

And almost 70 percent of all industrial jobs held by women in India are in the southern states — led by Tamil Nadu, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala.

For decades, Tamil Nadu has been celebrated as India’s most industrialised state.

Cars, phones, footwear, garments — the state’s factories touch almost every part of our daily lives.

But the real story is about the women who keep this engine running.

TNM hit the ground to see how it’s working in reality.

We saw stories of progress and hope. 

But like everything else in India, it’s complicated.

There’s opportunity, and there’s inequality.

Let me explain.

We’ve always aimed to do something meaningful with LME. A few months ago, we realised that some stories need to be told from the ground, not just from the studio. Whenever possible, we’ve stepped out, met people where they are, and brought their voices directly to you. And we’ve been able to do that only because you had our back.

As we move forward, we want to bring you even more ground reports. Help us make that happen. Support me and my team by scanning the QR code or clicking the link in the description and making a payment of your choice.

Avail our 26% discount offer: https://pages.razorpay.com/GcaZzOyR26

Like LME? Support the show: https://rzp.io/rzp/support-lme

This is Delta Electronics’ manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri. Here they manufacture many electronic components including parts for electric vehicles and telecom equipment. 

The factory employs around 4,000 people and about 62% of its workforce is women. 

The concentration of women is much more on the factory floor. Where women make up 85% of the work force. 

Reena, the Employee Relations Officer. says Delta has consistently worked to make women employees feel supported, helping them adjust to the work environment and maintain a healthy work-life balance. 

She says that the company has seen women employees be more disciplined, more dedicated, and far less likely to switch jobs.

Among the women here, many have fought difficult battles to get this far. Take Ameena, for instance. She is married and has a child, and she had to overcome strong resistance to take up this job. 

Divya is a testing engineer at Delta. Her journey started over three years ago, when she was a young intern from Puducherry. Now she leads a team.

Lavanya’s family wanted a better life for their daughter. Her parents, both farmers, wanted their daughters to be financially independent. 

Tamil Nadu didn’t become a women-led industrial powerhouse overnight.

State Planning Commission vice-chairperson J Jeyaranjan says this is the result of nearly 50 to 60 years of consistent industrial policy.

The state invested in growing both MSMEs and large factories at the same time.

A major shift came in 2014, when the Tamil Nadu government amended the Factories Act of 1948 to permit women to work night shifts under defined safety guidelines. 

This policy change opened up opportunities in the manufacturing sector.  

But the industrial push was supported by something just as important: welfare schemes. These were targeted, intentional, and sustained. 

It also started with something deceptively simple: schooling.

To have women educated, there were a slew of schemes devised over decades. 

From the noon-meal scheme to special incentives for girls like cycles, Tamil Nadu kept pushing to get girls into classrooms — and to keep them there.

Today, girls slightly outnumber boys in higher education enrollment.

The industry also changed in the last decade

Electronics, non-leather footwear, auto components — all booming.

Tamil Nadu’s electronics exports jumped from 1 billion dollars to 14-15 billion in just four years.

These sectors overwhelmingly hired women.

Successive governments kept this momentum going — some did better than the others- this is something rare in India’s political landscape.

Hostel schemes like Thozhiyar Viduthi for working women, funded through global agencies, are now coming up across districts.

Free bus travel for women, with schemes such as Vidiyal Payanam, has expanded mobility dramatically.

And because Tamil Nadu isn’t built around just one big city, women can often work within 50–60 kilometres of home.

Decentralisation matters.

Every 30-40 kilometres you hit a town with factories, services, and commercial activity.

That makes it possible for women to take jobs without migrating hundreds of kilometres away

But of course, numbers and policies don’t tell the whole story.

There is a paradox at the heart of Tamil Nadu’s achievement.

Because let’s be clear- TN’s numbers are good when compared to other industrialised states like Maharashtra and Gujarat, but that cannot be the benchmark.

Though Tamil Nadu has encouraged women to work, many of these jobs are labour intensive, poorly paid and are low-skilled. And as always, it's Dalit women who take up a large part of these jobs. 

In 2017-18 Tamil Nadu employed 7.08 lakh women in factories — three times more than Karnataka. But the Annual Survey of industries noted all these problems — especially the poor pay.

Many experts have pointed out that the number of women working went up during the pandemic- and that’s because of distress. 

Women badly wanted jobs and a lot of them were taking up agriculture jobs. 

Let me give you two statistics from the Periodic Labour Force Survey of 2020-2021

The gender earning gap was the highest in Tamil Nadu- that is how much a woman earns vs a man for the same job.

Only 12% of women hold white-collar positions, while about 70% remain on what’s called the shop floors — or the factory production areas 

 These are not small gaps, they are structural patterns.

And this is where labour organiser Sujatha Mody asks us to look closer.

She points out that women are concentrated in the lowest-paid sectors — garments, electronics assembly, housekeeping — where wages are deliberately kept low.

And when wages are revised, hundreds of employers file injunctions to block the increase. Legal delays drag on for years, draining unions and weakening workers.

But Sujatha also shows us what change looks like when women organise.

The union which she is the president of, Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam, reaches out not just to workers — but to workers’ daughters.

After-school programmes, tuitions, activities that built confidence and voice.

And on the shop floor, consistent documentation and pressure led to real change.

Export-oriented companies responded when cases were made visible.

Supervisors were warned, and harassment was reduced.

Factories were pushed to improve basics like drinking water, ventilation, and accident reporting.

It’s a reminder that unionising isn’t just about wages — it’s about dignity, safety, and building solidarity. 

But the biggest challenge remains structural.

Economist Vidya Mahambare points out that there is a growing mismatch between education and job quality. Young women with postgraduate degrees, even double degrees, are working in low paying factory jobs. 

The low quality of their education is also not helping them. 

Hiring engineering graduates for repetitive manual labour may work today, but not for long.

Women’s aspirations are rising, but job quality isn’t rising fast enough.

Despite all these problems, the social impact of this shift is undeniable.

As Jeyaranjan puts it, industrial work helps people leave caste-bound occupations behind, which is a quiet but powerful social transformation.

So what is Tamil Nadu’s story?

Decades of investment in education, industry, welfare, and decentralisation have created opportunities for women on a scale unmatched anywhere in India.

It has lifted families and reshaped gender roles.

But it’s also a story that is still structured around women’s exploitation.

Tamil Nadu shows us what’s possible, and what’s still unfinished.

Before I go, a reminder that we are running an offer on our subscriptions, 26% off. Why? Because the Modi govt announced a hike of 26% in ad rates to print media. So now you can expect even less critical coverage from those news orgs. If you want to support those of us who do not take any money from the government, this is the time to make your voice heard. 

For suggestions and feedbacks, write to lme@thenewsminute.com

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe to The News Minute today. 

Avail our 26% discount offer: https://pages.razorpay.com/GcaZzOyR26

Support our series on shady business of stolen footage: https://pages.razorpay.com/hidden

Like LME? Support the show: https://rzp.io/rzp/support-lme

If you are watching from abroad, click this link: https://buy.stripe.com/28o01q9md0OPdtm8wR

Producer: Megha Mukundan

Script: Lakshmi Priya

Camera: Ajay R, Nithesk Kumar M

Editor: Nikhil Sekhar