According to the United Nations Global Compact report, India’s female labour force participation has declined from 34 percent in 2006 to 24.8 percent in 2020. The report says India is the only country among 153 surveyed countries where the economic gender gap is larger than the political gap.

Another big challenge for women in business is access to finance. An IFC report shows that over 70 percent of total finance requirement of women entrepreneurs in the country remains unmet.

A study by angel investing platform 'LetsVenture' finds that women form just 1 percent of India’s 10,000-strong angel investor community. Gender gaps in the representation of women as allocators and recipients of capital also puts access to financing at risk for female entrepreneurs.

Data mined by Venture Intelligence shows that among the top 150 funded startups in India - only 16.7 percent were led by women founders in 2020 from 11.8 percent in 2015.

To talk about the road ahead to improve female participation in the labour force, CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Anju Srivastava, founder and CEO of Wingreens Farms; Meena Ganesh, MD and CEO of Protea Medical; Vinati Saraf, MD and CEO of Vinati Organics; and Neha Motwani, founder and CEO of fitternity.com.

Watch video for more.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)