By T N Ashok
Women in the age group 18 to 30 are the rising work force in India representing the strongest demographic powering an unprecedented revolution of the fairer sex working at the shopfloor level in India, particularly the south, with aggressive hiring by MNCs for their quality work and efficiency.
Every hour, hundreds of smartphones roll off production lines in southern India, destined for stores across America, Europe and Asia. Behind the gleaming aluminium frames and precision-engineered chips are rows of young women dressed in anti-static uniforms, their fingers moving with astonishing speed and accuracy. A trained operator can assemble, inspect or process nearly 500 smartphone units in an hour, a feat of dexterity that global electronics manufacturers say has become one of India’s biggest competitive advantages.
The story unfolding across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is not merely one of industrial growth. It is rapidly becoming one of the biggest stories of women’s economic empowerment in modern India.
For decades, India’s manufacturing sector struggled to absorb women into its workforce. Today, that equation is changing dramatically as multinational corporations diversify production away from China and build massive new facilities across southern India. At the centre of this transformation stands Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, Apple’s largest manufacturing partner.
Its sprawling campuses near Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu and Devanahalli near Bengaluru resemble modern industrial townships more than traditional factories. Thousands of women arrive every morning in company buses from villages and towns across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Others live in purpose-built hostels equipped with round-the-clock security, biometric access, medical facilities, transport services and supervised accommodation designed to reassure anxious parents sending daughters hundreds of kilometres from home.
For many of these young women, the job represents something unprecedented. A regular salary. Financial independence. The confidence to support parents, educate siblings and delay early marriage. The migration of women into India’s electronics manufacturing hubs represents a quiet social revolution.
Unlike construction or heavy engineering, electronics assembly demands patience, precision, concentration and consistency rather than physical strength. Global manufacturers have increasingly concluded that women excel in such environments because of lower error rates, better process discipline and superior fine-motor skills required for assembling miniature electronic components.
This preference is hardly unique to India. Electronics factories across Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and China have historically relied heavily on female workers. India is now witnessing a similar transition. The numbers are striking.
As Apple expands manufacturing in India, Foxconn, Tata Electronics (which acquired Wistron’s India operations), Pegatron and other suppliers have collectively hired tens of thousands of workers, with women forming a substantial share of assembly-line employees. Apple has steadily shifted more iPhone production to India as part of its “China Plus One” strategy, while Foxconn continues investing billions of dollars in new campuses across southern India.
Foxconn’s new Bengaluru campus alone is expected to become one of the world’s largest iPhone manufacturing facilities over the next few years. But Foxconn is only one chapter in a much larger story. The global manufacturing map is being redrawn.
Rising wages in China, geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, supply-chain disruptions following the pandemic and the desire of multinational corporations to diversify production have encouraged companies to build alternative manufacturing bases. India has emerged as one of the principal beneficiaries.
Electronics majors, semiconductor companies, automobile manufacturers, consumer appliance makers and medical-device firms are expanding rapidly across southern India. Among those increasing their footprint are Apple suppliers Foxconn, Pegatron and Tata Electronics, while companies such as Samsung, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Flex, Jabil, Sanmina, Bosch, Siemens, Hyundai, Kia, Volvo, Schneider Electric and several Japanese and Taiwanese manufacturers have expanded manufacturing capacity or supplier ecosystems in India over the past few years.
Many of these companies openly acknowledge that women constitute an increasingly important part of their manufacturing workforce, particularly in electronics, precision engineering, medical devices and component assembly.
The transformation is visible beyond factory gates. Entire local economies are changing. Small restaurants, transport operators, hostels, tailoring shops, banks, coaching centres and retail outlets flourish around industrial corridors.
Parents who once hesitated to educate daughters beyond school increasingly encourage them to pursue diplomas in electronics, mechatronics and industrial engineering. Yet this inspiring story carries uncomfortable contradictions.
Foxconn has also faced criticism over labour practices. A Reuters investigation reported that recruiters working for Foxconn’s main iPhone plant in Tamil Nadu had systematically discouraged or rejected married women from assembly jobs, allegedly because managers believed family responsibilities, pregnancy and absenteeism could affect productivity.
The allegations prompted scrutiny because both Apple and Foxconn’s supplier codes prohibit discrimination based on marital status. Indian authorities examined the matter after the report, while Foxconn stated that it had removed the practice were identified and that the vast majority of women employed at the facility were married.
The controversy highlights an important question confronting India’s industrial future. Can rapid manufacturing growth coexist with inclusive employment? Human-rights advocates argue that genuine women’s empowerment cannot stop at providing employment alone.
Equal opportunity, maternity protection, workplace safety, career progression, fair wages and freedom from discrimination are equally important. The encouraging news is that competitive pressures may ultimately favour better labour standards.
Apple, whose global reputation depends heavily on responsible sourcing, has steadily tightened oversight of suppliers following previous controversies involving working conditions. International investors increasingly evaluate environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices before committing capital, making workforce policies a strategic business issue rather than merely a legal obligation.
The larger picture remains overwhelmingly positive. Across southern India, daughters of farmers, daily-wage labourers and small shopkeepers are becoming part of global supply chains.
Many are first-generation industrial workers. Some are first-generation graduates. Many become the highest earners in their families before turning twenty-five. Their salaries finance siblings’ education, household improvements, motorcycles, health insurance and even small entrepreneurial ventures back home.
This ripple effect is perhaps the greatest measure of empowerment. Economists have long argued that no society transforms faster than one where women enter formal employment in large numbers.
Factory wages create bank accounts. Bank accounts create financial identity. Financial identity creates economic independence. Economic independence gradually reshapes families and communities.
The same southern states that once led India’s information technology revolution may now be leading its manufacturing revolution as well—this time powered not by software engineers alone, but by thousands of women on factory floors producing some of the world’s most sophisticated consumer electronics.
Every iPhone assembled in India tells two stories. One is about geopolitics, supply chains and multinational investment. The other is about a young woman leaving her village, boarding a company bus before dawn, entering a clean-room assembly line and quietly participating in India’s emergence as a global manufacturing powerhouse.
That second story may ultimately prove to be the more important one. For the future of Indian manufacturing will not merely be measured by export figures or factory output. It will be measured by how many millions of women find dignity, independence and opportunity through productive employment.
If India succeeds in marrying industrial growth with inclusive labour practices, the country’s manufacturing boom could become not just an economic miracle but one of the most significant chapters in the history of women’s empowerment in independent India.
In a country where female foeticide incidence is high because it involved paying high dowries, girl child, was considered a burden, especially in rural hinterland, particularly in north and western India. Women were not encouraged to study. But with the Modi government launching Beti Bachao, Beti Padao, slogan, the scenario is changing. The slogan means Save the girl child, educate the girl child, meaning a girl child is as important as a boy child capable of earning bread and bringing prosperity to the family. (IPA Service)
