Report in Bengaluru reveals domestic duties keep 90 percent of inactive women from work

A new report released in Bengaluru on Wednesday revealed that approximately 90 per cent of women in Karnataka who are not employed or studying are kept out of the workforce due to domestic or childcare responsibilities. Published by the Future of India Foundation, 'The Karnataka Handbook of Youth Opportunity' highlights significant gender gaps and regional disparities in youth opportunities across the state, contrasting prosperous areas like Bengaluru Urban with lagging northern districts.

The handbook classifies government-surveyed data at the district level using 180 data points across five "POWER pillars": participation, opportunities, work, education, and readiness. These data points range from the stunting rate of children to the number of men who believe domestic violence is always unjustified.

While Karnataka as a whole scored 48.5 out of 100—slightly below the national average—the report highlights a stark divide between districts. Bengaluru Urban and Ramanagara recorded high opportunity scores of 65 and 57 respectively. In contrast, northern districts such as Raichur and Yadgir lagged far behind, with scores hovering around 42.

Speaking at the release event, Future of India Foundation Executive Director Ruchi Gupta noted that the concentration of opportunities in Bengaluru strains the city’s infrastructure and forces young people from other districts to migrate. Gupta emphasized the need to distribute these advantages across the entire state.

"Eighty-five per cent of Indians live in the district of their birth," Gupta said. "The future of India and the future of the youth are the same… and that future will largely be determined at the district level."

The report also detailed major gender disparities in employment. While 17 per cent of all working youth in Karnataka perform unpaid labour—such as working on a family farm or enterprise—this figure rises to 24 per cent for women. Additionally, the unemployment rate for female graduates stands at 24 per cent, nearly double the 13 per cent unemployment rate recorded for male graduates.