Life Circle at National Consultation on Platform Work & Women's Economic Empowerment
New Delhi, 1 September 2025 Life Circle Health Services proudly participated in the National Consultation on Platform Work as an Enabler for Women’s Economic Empowerment, held at The Dome, Ambassador Hotel, New Delhi. The event was convened by IWWAGE (Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy), UN Women India, and Sankalpa Foundation — three leading institutions driving gender equity research and policy in India.
This landmark National Consultation brought together policymakers, researchers, social enterprises, and civil society organizations to explore how digital platform work and the women in care economy sector can be leveraged to create dignified, inclusive, and sustainable livelihoods for women across India. Life Circle’s active participation in this consultation reflects its long-standing commitment to women empowerment India and building a future where every woman has access to meaningful economic opportunity.
National Consultation Work Women Empowerment: Setting the Stage
The consultation opened with the release and discussion of findings from IWWAGE’s landmark study — The Changing World of Women’s Work: Navigating the Possibilities and Precarities within Platform Work. The research shed light on how technology and digital platforms are fundamentally reshaping women’s participation in the formal and informal workforce across India.
The study highlighted both the possibilities and the vulnerabilities that come with the rise of **gig economy inclusion** — from flexible earning opportunities to gaps in social protection, wage fairness, and digital access. These insights set a powerful foundation for the collaborative dialogue that followed, bringing urgency and depth to every discussion at the event.
By grounding the consultation in rigorous research, the organizers ensured that policy recommendations emerging from the day would be evidence-based, actionable, and rooted in the lived realities of women platform workers across India.
Life Circle Advocacy: Collaborative Dialogue for Women in the Platform Economy
One of the most significant highlights of the National Consultation Work Women Empowerment event was Panel Discussion 2 — Collaborative Solutions: Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Empowering Women in Platform Work. Priya Anant, Director and Co-founder of Life Circle Health Services, represented the organization on this distinguished panel alongside representatives from:
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Safetipin
- MacArthur Foundation
- GIGWa
This multi-stakeholder panel explored innovative, scalable models that make digital platform work safer, fairer, and more accessible for women — particularly those entering the workforce for the first time or transitioning from informal to formal employment. The discussion reflected the very spirit of Life Circle advocacy: that systemic change in women’s economic participation requires collaboration across sectors, disciplines, and institutions.
Priya Anant brought to the table Life Circle’s on-ground experience as one of India’s leading women in care economy enterprises — sharing real-world insights on how platform-based care work can serve as a genuine pathway to financial independence, professional growth, and social dignity for women.
Shaping the Future of Digital Platform Work in India
A key focus of the National Consultation was understanding how the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) — a set of seven internationally recognized principles — can be practically applied by businesses to advance gender equality. For Life Circle, four of these principles are especially central to its mission and operations:
- Establishing high-level corporate leadership for gender equality— ensuring that gender equity is not an afterthought but a leadership priority at every level of the organization.
- Treating all women and men fairly at work — promoting equal opportunities, pay transparency, and non-discrimination within the care economy workforce.
- Ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of all workers — a principle that resonates deeply with Life Circle’s roots in health services, where worker well-being is inseparable from the quality of care delivered.
- Promoting education, training, and professional development for women — investing in upskilling women platform workers so they can grow beyond entry-level roles and achieve long-term career progression.
By aligning its Life Circle advocacy work with these globally recognized principles, Life Circle demonstrated how purpose-driven enterprises can lead from the front in building a more gender-equitable gig economy inclusion model in India.
A Broader Vision for Women Empowerment India
The National Consultation made it abundantly clear that empowering women in platform work is not a single-sector challenge — it requires a coordinated, multi-dimensional response. The consultation emphasized the urgent need for:
- Inclusive digital infrastructure that supports women’s participation across the care and service economy, especially in semi-urban and rural geographies where connectivity and device access remain barriers to entry in digital platform work.
- Robust policy frameworks to ensure fair wages, transparent data protection practices, and access to social security for women platform workers — closing the gaps that currently leave many gig economy inclusion workers without a safety net.
- Cross-sector partnerships between the private sector, government bodies, and civil society organizations such as the Sankalpa Foundation and UN Women India to scale proven impact models and drive systemic inclusion at a national level.
- Gender-sensitive platform design that accounts for the unique challenges women face — including safety concerns, caregiving responsibilities, and limited digital literacy — ensuring that platforms are built with women, not just for them.
Through its participation, Life Circle contributed meaningfully to shaping the policy discourse around the future of women empowerment India in a digitized, post-pandemic economy — offering both the perspective of an enterprise that employs and empowers women and the lived experience of building a sustainable, values-driven care economy organization.
The National Consultation made it abundantly clear that empowering women in platform work is not a single-sector challenge — it requires a coordinated, multi-dimensional response. The consultation emphasized the urgent need for:
- Inclusive digital infrastructure that supports women’s participation across the care and service economy, especially in semi-urban and rural geographies where connectivity and device access remain barriers to entry in digital platform work.
- Robust policy frameworks to ensure fair wages, transparent data protection practices, and access to social security for women platform workers — closing the gaps that currently leave many gig economy inclusion workers without a safety net.
- Cross-sector partnerships between the private sector, government bodies, and civil society organizations such as the Sankalpa Foundation and UN Women India to scale proven impact models and drive systemic inclusion at a national level.
- Gender-sensitive platform design that accounts for the unique challenges women face — including safety concerns, caregiving responsibilities, and limited digital literacy — ensuring that platforms are built with women, not just for them.
Through its participation, Life Circle contributed meaningfully to shaping the policy discourse around the future of women empowerment India in a digitized, post-pandemic economy — offering both the perspective of an enterprise that employs and empowers women and the lived experience of building a sustainable, values-driven care economy organization.
Why This National Consultation Matters for the Care Economy
The intersection of digital platform work and the women in care economy sector is one of the most consequential spaces in India’s evolving labor market. As India’s aging population grows and the demand for professional home-based care increases, the care economy presents an extraordinary — and largely untapped — opportunity to create dignified livelihoods for millions of women.
Yet without deliberate policy intervention, inclusive platform design, and advocacy from enterprises like Life Circle, these opportunities risk replicating existing inequalities rather than dismantling them. Women in care roles continue to face undervaluation of their skills, limited access to formal employment benefits, and inadequate recognition of the critical social function they perform.
This is precisely why Life Circle advocacy at forums like the National Consultation Work Women Empowerment event is so vital. Every conversation that happens at the policy level has the potential to translate into better standards, better protections, and better opportunities for the women on the ground.
About the National Consultation
Organized by IWWAGE , with active participation from UN Women India, Sankalpa Foundation, and leading academic and research institutions, the National Consultation convened over 100 stakeholders from across India to co-create pathways for gender-equitable platform work.
Sessions featured expert insights and presentations from:
- Prof. Balaji Parthasarathy (IIIT Bangalore)
- Dr. Sona Mitra (IWWAGE)
- Prof. Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute)
These distinguished voices added academic rigour and policy depth to the consultation, ensuring that the dialogue moved beyond aspiration toward concrete, evidence-backed recommendations for women empowerment India through digital platform work and gig economy inclusion.
Yet without deliberate policy intervention, inclusive platform design, and advocacy from enterprises like Life Circle, these opportunities risk replicating existing inequalities rather than dismantling them. Women in care roles continue to face undervaluation of their skills, limited access to formal employment benefits, and inadequate recognition of the critical social function they perform.
This is precisely why Life Circle advocacy at forums like the National Consultation Work Women Empowerment event is so vital. Every conversation that happens at the policy level has the potential to translate into better standards, better protections, and better opportunities for the women on the ground.
Life Circle's Ongoing Commitment
Life Circle’s participation in the National Consultation on Platform Work & Women’s Economic Empowerment is a reflection of its broader mission — to build a care economy that is not only high-quality and compassionate but also deeply inclusive and empowering for the women who power it.
As India continues to navigate the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly digitizing economy, Life Circle remains committed to advocating for policies, platforms, and partnerships that place women — their dignity, their safety, and their economic futures — at the very center of progress.
To learn more about Life Circle’s leadership and advocacy work, visit lifecircle.in
