New data underlines how Tamil Nadu remains closest in India to replicating China’s women-led electronics manufacturing model, with other states far behind.The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) recent report on the labour market in India’s 46 most populous cities (with a population of more than 10 lakh as per Census 2011) shows that two Tamil Nadu cities – Coimbatore at 41.3% and Madurai at 37% – rank in the top three when it comes to the female Labour Force Participation Rate. This is well above the urban India average of 27.7%.The Labour Force Participation Rate refers to the percentage of people either already employed or looking for work.Sandwiched between the two, at 40.6%, is Surat. However, the Annual Survey of Industries data shows that Gujarat’s share among women employed in the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products remained stagnant at 10% from 2013-14 to 2023-24, even as it grew from 20% to 43% for Tamil Nadu in the same period.At the same time, Maharashtra and Karnataka saw notable declines in the share of women they employ in the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products – 24% to 6%, and 11% to 8%, between 2013-14 and 2023-24.As a percentage of all women directly employed in India’s factories – irrespective of what they manufacture – Tamil Nadu remains the leader among states. It has largely held on to this lead, with its share showing only a slight decline from 43% in 2021-22 to 40% in 2023-24.The TN effectIn 2023-24, Tamil Nadu accounted for nearly half the women directly employed (contract staff excluded) in the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products across the country – 14,814 of the total 34,531.Story continues below this adThis figure has likely increased further since then after the inauguration in August 2024 by the state government and Foxconn of a women-only residential complex in Vallam Vadagal, Sriperumbudur. Built by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) at a cost of Rs 706.5 crore, it can house 18,720 workers.The new MoSPI data on India’s 46 biggest cities is also far from the complete Tamil Nadu picture as it only covers cities which had a population of more than 10 lakh in Census 2011. This means new industrial hubs such as Hosur, Erode and Oragadam are not included as they had a population lower than that in Census 2011.More recently, Tamil Nadu signed a Rs 15,000-crore agreement with Vikram Solar for the setting up of a Battery Energy Storage System manufacturing facility at the SIPCOT Industrial Park in Tirunelveli district, days after another MoU worth Rs 1,000 crore was signed with Hitachi to expand the company’s facilities. The state is also reportedly in the race to be the home of Bajaj Auto’s proposed new manufacturing plant as well as Canadian firm Neo Performance Materials’ rare earth magnet manufacturing base in the country. All of this should result in the hiring of more women.According to Pooja Sharma Goyal, Founding CEO of The Udaiti Foundation – a non-profit working on improving the availability and accessibility of quality work for women – Tamil Nadu’s success lies in resolving housing for women workers, the one issue that leads to 80% of women declining jobs.Story continues below this adTreating housing as economic infrastructure and not welfare, Goyal says, the Tamil Nadu Working Women’s Hostels Corporation offers two models: industrial housing, involving large dormitory systems under SIPCOT; and Thozhi hostels, which are smaller, high-quality infrastructure with 100-150 beds.The 19 Thozhi hostels currently have 87% occupancy, and the number is set to rise to 46 over the next two years, Goyal says.Housing as the X factorAccording to a December 2024 paper by think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, almost half the working women hostels in the country are in just two states: Kerala and Tamil Nadu.Apart from security, the close proximity of these hostels to the place of work of the women helps attract and retain migrant labour. For the employers, it reduces the requirement of providing last-mile mobility infrastructure.Story continues below this adBut, in contrast to Tamil Nadu, Kerala’s share of women workforce in manufacturing electronics is low and went down from 8% in 2013-14 to 6% in 2023-24. However, it is still higher than states such as Andhra Pradesh (3%) and Uttar Pradesh (5%).Other states are trying to catch up. In December, Foxconn hired nearly 30,000 people for its new iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka’s Devanahalli, of whom around 80% (24,000 or so) are reportedly women. The firm is adding more dormitory accommodations on its campus to add to the six already in place.Low, but rapidly growing wagesThe hostels are known to be restrictive, with factories reported to have avoided hiring married women in the past, even as the drudgery and repetitive nature of work can be dispiriting.Then there are the wages. In Chennai, the average monthly wage for salaried women was Rs 22,919 in 2025, lower than the million-plus city average of Rs 23,707 and almost half of top-ranked Prayagraj; it was even lower in Coimbatore (Rs 19,149) and Madurai (Rs 18,247).Story continues below this adEven in the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products, where Tamil Nadu dominates, the average wage per worker in 2023-24 was Rs 2.45 lakh, lower than the all-India average of Rs 2.5 lakh. In top-ranked Telangana, this is Rs 4.46 lakh.But the wages have been growing faster than in most other states. Between 2013-14 and 2023-24, the average wage growth in Tamil Nadu was 83%, more than twice the all-India average of 36%, and behind only Delhi (124%), Puducherry (115%), Madhya Pradesh (92%), Goa (90%) and Uttarakhand (89%).In a blog post last month, South Korean electronics giant Samsung said: “Today, the Sriperumbudur belt is home to a thriving ecosystem of component manufacturers and service partners, many of whom have steadily enhanced their capabilities to meet global benchmarks in quality, efficiency and innovation.”China exampleThe practice of providing dormitories to house women workers to power manufacturing is modelled after China.Story continues below this ad“In large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, migrants account for a quarter of the population; in the factory towns of south China, they power the assembly lines of the nation’s export economy. Together, they represent the largest migration in human history, three times the number of people who emigrated to America from Europe over a century,” Leslie Chang wrote in her book Factory Girls, published in 2008. China had 130 million migrant workers then.This floating population has made China the manufacturing powerhouse it is.Data on migrant women workers in India is hard to come by. What we do know from the MoSPI’s 2020-21 (July-June) migration survey is that almost every other woman in urban India (47.8%) is a migrant; and that 54% of female migrants in urban areas come from rural regions.In an article last year, Monalisha Chakraborty, Assistant Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, estimated that Tamil Nadu accounted for a 12.1% share in female in-migration for work – the highest of any major destination state, including Maharashtra (11.8%), Karnataka (7.6%), Andhra Pradesh (6.8%), and Telangana (6.2%).Story continues below this adA report by the Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission on migrant workers in the Chennai region, submitted in March 2025, found that 86% of the surveyed 811 migrant workers came from five states: Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand. No gender-wise break-up was given. More than half (55%) were employed in the manufacturing sector.