Tata Motors wants to hire more women in India but fewer are working

Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata Motors Ltd. had just about 200 women on the shop floor three years ago. Now, it has 10 times that number and is looking to hire more.
In socially conservative India, that may be a tall order. Better educated women from wealthier families aren’t encouraged to work and it’s usually when a man’s salary falls short that women seek jobs.

Many drop out to take care of children and older family members, shrinking the share of women in the workforce to around 24 per cent in 2015-2016 from 36 per cent a decade earlier, according to government data.
The cost of going backwards is real for India: Asia’s third-largest economy would see gross domestic product increase 27 per cent if it were able to boost female workforce participation to the levels seen for men, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde has said. For Tata Motors, the benefits are already apparent.