Women working in the rooftop solar sector
A look at India's transition to clean energy
India’s rooftop solar targets represent a major opportunity for sustainable development
and for women’s employment. While India has shown a strong commitment towards a clean
energy transition through its renewable electricity installation target for 2022,
deployment of rooftop solar technology has been slow. With the potential to create
a large number of jobs in general, the rooftop solar sector also generates the types
of jobs attractive to highly skilled women in particular, a largely untapped pool
in India.
Our analysis, based on a survey of rooftop solar companies as well as qualitative
interviews with women currently employed in the sector, seeks to identify opportunities
for better gender balance at work, as well as barriers to achieving it. Women currently
account for only 11% of the workforce in the companies we surveyed. Participation
of women is particularly low in roles involving frequent travel and a required onsite
presence at project sites.
We recommend that the government enhance policies to scale up the rooftop solar market
by addressing the general challenges facing this sector, and introduce gender-targeted
policies to enable and encourage companies to advance actions that effectively support
women’s employment in this sector.
Published on March 26, 2019