World EV Day: Without women in the driver’s seat, India’s green transition will stall
India’s green energy revolution is racing ahead — but with half the population left out of the plan. Unless women are brought into the centre of this shift, the transition will be slower, weaker, and less just.
As India marks World EV Day, the country’s ambitions are visible and commendable. From a 500 GW renewable energy target to the world’s largest electric mobility push, we are laying the bricks of a clean economy. But from the ground up, the blueprint shows a dangerous blind spot: it’s a plan designed by and for men.
And that is not just unfair. It is inefficient. A transition that sidelines half its workforce is like driving a high-powered EV with its battery half-drained.
A policy blind spot with real costs
The warning signs are already here. A joint IEA–CEEW study found women make up only 11% of India’s rooftop solar workforce. State EV policies — from Delhi to Tamil Nadu — are full of targets for charging stations, subsidies, and investments. But when it comes to women, they are silent. No gender clauses in skill development. No hiring benchmarks. No funding carve-outs.
The only exceptions are token measures: a few states, like Odisha and Bihar, give slightly higher purchase incentives to women EV buyers. But even here, the benefit is for the user, not the driver or worker. It nudges women as consumers, not as part of the workforce or industry.
Even flagship programmes miss the mark. PMKVY continues to steer women into tailoring and beauty trades, while EV battery repair or charging infrastructure remains male-dominated. The much-praised PM Surya Ghar Yojana deserves credit for giving women greater financial power — panels can be registered in a woman’s name, offering asset ownership. But it stops short of enabling her as a trained solar entrepreneur or technician. She becomes a paper-owner, not a provider.
This selective framing is why the most visible images of women in clean mobility remain symbolic — like pink e-rickshaws run by women drivers in Jaipur. These initiatives are laudable, but they are exceptions, not the norm.
The result is predictable: a weak foundation for growth. Without women in technical roles, companies will face a shortage of skilled workers, service networks will remain patchy, and consumer confidence will lag. India’s clean-tech race will slow down not because of technology, but because of talent.
The inclusive model that already works
The good news is we know how to fix this. The “Solar Didis” in Jharkhand and the “Solar Sahelis” in Rajasthan have shown what happens when policy intentionally includes women. With training and micro-finance support, rural women became solar entrepreneurs — installing, repairing, and running local energy businesses. They didn’t just use clean energy; they delivered it.
These models prove the point: when women are given the tools, they don’t remain passive beneficiaries. They become the backbone of the energy transition.
This bottom-up success offers a powerful lesson: investing in women in the green economy is not charity. It is smart economics. It builds trust in communities, creates jobs where they are needed most, and accelerates adoption of new technology.
What India must do next
On World EV Day, India should move beyond celebration and announce a bold, practical agenda to fix this imbalance. Four immediate steps are within reach:
- Tie incentives to inclusion. Schemes like FAME and PLI must require audited gender targets for jobs and leadership roles. Public money should not fund an exclusive transition.
- Fix the skilling pipeline. ITIs and polytechnics must run dedicated women’s cohorts in core EV roles — battery assembly, charging station maintenance, and electronics. Safe hostels, toilets, and gender-sensitive curricula are not extras; they are preconditions.
- Use procurement power. PSU and government EV tenders should demand bidders disclose gender metrics and supplier diversity plans. The state’s purchasing muscle can reward companies that walk the talk on inclusion.
- Unlock green finance for women. Public banks and NBFCs must create low-interest credit lines and first-loss guarantees for women-led EV startups and service enterprises. Finance is often the biggest barrier — and the easiest lever to pull.
The cost of exclusion
This is a once-in-a-century transition. If women remain on the sidelines, India will repeat the fossil-fuel era’s inequalities in the clean era. But if we centre them as designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers, India can set a global benchmark for what a just transition looks like in the Global South.
The choice is simple. A green economy with women at the wheel will be faster, fairer, and stronger. One without them will keep stalling.