But Punjab has not had to deal with such difficulties much.

The trend of declining number of women employed in industrial units in Punjab is alarming. In fact, not only the number of employed women has decreased but the number of industrial units headed by women has also decreased dramatically. According to the data displayed on the online 'Udyam Registration Portal' monitored and supervised by the Central Government, by the end of February of the financial year 2025-26 (i.e. during 11 months), the number of women working in micro, small and medium industrial units (MSMEs) in Punjab was 3.53 lakh, while the corresponding annual figure for the financial year 2024-25 was 8.40 lakh. It is evident that the number of women working in such units has decreased by more than 50 percent within just one year.

This shortfall not only exposes the biased thinking of industrialists, but also points to the absence of necessary efforts at the government and social level to change such thinking. An important aspect of this situation is that among the five north-western states, apart from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh is also lagging behind in terms of generating employment opportunities for women, while Haryana, the Union Territory of Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir are on the path of progress on this front. Haryana recorded an 18.27 percent increase in industrial employment for women during 2025-26 compared to 2024-25, while the increase in this pattern was 3.2 percent in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Himachal figures do not cause much concern because nature has wreaked havoc there twice in the last three years, due to which women's priorities have become more focused on taking care of their homes and families instead of employment. But Punjab has not had to deal with such difficulties much. Therefore, the figures related to this state demand more serious consideration. 

Like the above figures, Punjab also suffers from a backward trend in terms of the number of women industrial entrepreneurs. During the year 2024-25, the number of micro, small and medium industrial units registered in the state was 5.76 lakh, out of which 2.18 lakh (37 percent) were owned by women. During 2025-26, the total number of units decreased to 4.13 lakh, out of which the number of units owned by women was recorded at 1.36 lakh. Thus, this percentage decreased to 33%.

On the contrary, at the national level, instead of a decrease, there was an increase of 2.5 percent in such figures. In the light of such figures, the gender discrimination or patriarchal bias in Punjab raises a question mark before the progressive image of this state. The tragic side of the situation is that neither the provincial government nor the political, social and cultural organizations pay attention to the above discrepancy.
Why has such a discrepancy arisen? Before finding the answer to this question, it does not seem unreasonable to accept the reality that the tendency to consider women as inferior to men in industrial, financial and business sectors like legislatures has not yet been rejected from within us.

This patriarchal system is not letting go. Therefore, when the responsibility of running an industrial unit is to be entrusted to a woman, the promoters or capitalists of the unit try to ensure that such a unit produces only products required by women or households. If these products are not traditional or women-oriented, then most of the time the son or brother of the owner-woman is handed over the reins of the industrial unit as soon as he reaches adulthood from a minor. It has also been observed that if the industrial families are large, then the female heirs are necessarily given training and responsibility as future owners or promoters, but in small or medium-sized families, it is only in the absence of male heirs that the business reins are considered for handing over to the female heirs.

In Punjab, there are very few large (i.e. billion-dollar-owned) industrial houses. Therefore, the custom of encouraging women entrepreneurs to take on business responsibilities at the family level is not very strong. As far as the question of the decline in the number of female industrial workers is concerned, several reasons are being cited in that context, such as the fact that more employment was given to 'forced' women due to the severe shortage of migrant labor after 'Covid-19', but the return of labor led to a rapid reduction in the number of these women; women feeling unsafe in commuting to and from newly established industrial units due to their distance from urban areas; businessmen finding the recruitment of female workers to be a 'loss bargain' due to the expansion of the scope of facilities for female workers by the higher courts, etc. Even government or organized level initiatives to change such negative concerns and tendencies are not visible in Punjab in a visible form. What could be a bigger eclipse than this for any state that considers itself progressive and describes itself as such?