Authored by – Pooja Goyal, Founding CEO, The Udaiti Foundation
India’s logistics sector is in overdrive. Valued at $215 billion and growing at 10.5% annually, it contributes nearly 14% to India’s GDP and is central to our ambition of becoming a $30 trillion economy by 2047. But as India builds the supply chains of tomorrow, it risks leaving behind a critical lever for productivity and growth: women.
According to the SheMoves Logistics Report by The Udaiti Foundation and CII, women comprise just 7% of the workforce across NSE-listed logistics companies. That’s a mere one percentage point increase in three years. This isn’t merely a representation issue—it’s a drag on economic efficiency.
This Sector Was Not Designed for Women
The logistics sector, like much of India’s industrial landscape, wasn’t designed with women in mind. From warehouse floors to boardrooms, structural exclusion is embedded at every level.
Of the women who are in the workforce, a staggering 78% are concentrated in frontline roles, while only 22% are in office-based or managerial positions. Even though most are on permanent contracts, career progression is nearly absent. Just 44% of logistics companies have at least one woman in a key management role. Less than half have more than one woman on their board.
Cultural assumptions that logistics is “man’s work”—physically demanding, mobility-heavy, and unsafe—still dominate. This perception is reinforced by real barriers: lack of gender-sensitive infrastructure, night shift restrictions, limited public transport, and negligible childcare support.
Safety remains a critical issue, with a 37% year-on-year increase in POSH complaints in the sector. This signals an increase in reporting resulting from greater awareness & better internal frameworks to do so. That being said, a closer inspection into resolution mechanisms is also merited, to ensure that more women are emboldened to speak up, if the situation demands. Women are also shut out of informal networks that shape promotions and access to leadership. The result? A system that keeps women out not because they aren’t capable, but because it was never built to include them.
Inclusion is Not Charity. It’s Strategy.
The logistics sector has long treated inclusion as a social or compliance issue. But the tide is beginning to turn—and not because of mandates, but because the business case is too strong to ignore. Effective Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) interventions are essential not only for fairness but also for creating truly meritocratic workplaces where talent is allocated efficiently. Research shows that companies with inclusive cultures make better decisions, innovate more, and achieve higher productivity by unlocking the full potential of their workforce.
Mahindra Logistics is showing how workplace design can be a competitive advantage. With ergonomically designed spaces, assistive tools, structured training, and mentorship programs, they are making frontline roles more accessible—and productive—for women.
Following a commitment to ensure a 25% representation of women in management by 25%, Blue Dart has surpassed this with 33% women in KMPs. This is the result of flexible maternity policies, dedicated grievance systems, and targeted hiring. Delhivery’s approach is equally comprehensive: gender-segregated facilities, subsidised accommodation, and women-led hiring panels have led to 6% lower attrition and 8% higher full attendance among women employees.
These aren’t just anecdotes or HR metrics—they’re operational levers that drive real returns.
The economic impact of inclusion is evident not just at the operational level, but also in boardrooms and executive teams:
- Companies with more women in key management roles report up to 35% higher equity value and 34% stronger shareholder returns.
- In warehouse operations, increasing female participation to just 30% can reduce cost per worker by 3.6%, driven by higher retention and more accurate order processing.
- Women employees have been shown to contribute to cost savings of up to 12%, with better attendance and fewer processing errors.
In a sector driven by margins, timelines, and precision, leaving women out is not just unjust—it’s uneconomical.
What Needs to Happen Now—and Fast
India doesn’t need more whitepapers on gender disparity in logistics. We need targeted, scalable action. Four priority areas stand out:
- Rebuild the workplace for inclusion: This means safe and hygienic restrooms, secure transportation, well-lit warehouses, and reliable childcare. Women cannot work—or grow—if the workplace doesn’t support their full lifecycle.
- Rethink hiring and leadership pipelines: Gender-neutral job descriptions, clear hiring targets, and unconscious bias training must become non-negotiables. Companies must also institutionalise progression frameworks—mentorship, rotational assignments, and visibility in decision-making spaces.
- Let tech lead the transformation: Automation reduces physical load and opens up new roles in inventory management, last-mile tracking, and supply chain analytics. Companies must train and upskill women in these roles and explore gig-based models to enable flexible participation.
- Build public-private momentum: Government can act as a powerful enabler—through funding for gender-smart infrastructure, tax incentives for inclusive employers, and harmonised labour codes that facilitate night shifts with safety safeguards.
This must be a coordinated effort—industry bodies, logistics firms, policy institutions, and civil society must act in concert.
Given its scale and centrality to India’s economic transformation, logistics must now become a model for inclusive growth.
From Missed Opportunity to Competitive Advantage
We must stop viewing women as beneficiaries of inclusion and start seeing them as drivers of business transformation. The logistics sector has the scale, complexity, and reach to become a beacon for gender-intentional growth.
And the data is clear: when women participate, the system performs better.
The path to Viksit Bharat cannot be paved by GDP growth alone. It must also be fuelled by participation—equal, enabled, and sustained. If logistics is the engine of India’s growth, then inclusion is the fuel we can no longer afford to ignore.
The opportunity is in front of us. It’s time for the sector to shift into high gear and deliver transformative results.
