The Silent Burden Behind Success
India’s workforce has never been more ambitious — but it’s also never been more anxious.
As corporate ladders climb higher and deadlines grow tighter, an invisible crisis is unfolding in offices, startups, and homes across the country: the mental health struggle of India’s working women.
From Mumbai’s high-rise offices to remote work desks in Odisha’s towns, women are balancing relentless expectations — as professionals, caregivers, wives, mothers, and daughters.
They are excelling on paper but crumbling in silence.
In 2024, a LinkedIn Workplace Confidence Survey found that 78% of Indian women feel more stressed than they did five years ago, citing “work-life imbalance” as the top cause. Yet, fewer than 15% sought professional help, largely due to stigma or lack of time.
As Dr. Nisha Deshmukh, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist, puts it:
“Indian women are trained to endure, not express. Mental exhaustion is seen as weakness, not warning.”
Breaking the Myth: ‘Having It All’ Has a Cost
The image of the “modern Indian woman” — educated, independent, multitasking — has become aspirational. Yet, beneath that image lies an unsustainable expectation to do it all.
A 2023 Deloitte report revealed that nearly half of Indian women experience burnout, compared to just 30% of men. The reasons? Extended working hours, unequal household responsibilities, and workplace microaggressions.
Many women describe their daily lives as an “invisible marathon”:
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Meetings by day, meals by night.
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Project deadlines competing with school deadlines.
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Self-care replaced by guilt.
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52% of working women feel “emotionally unsupported” at work.
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43% report experiencing microaggressions or casual sexism.
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Only 18% say their company offers access to mental health counselling.
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Workplaces must normalize mental health conversations.
Companies like Accenture India and Tata Steel now offer on-demand therapy sessions and stress audits. Others must follow. -
Policies should reflect life realities.
Paid family leave, hybrid flexibility, and returnship programs can reduce burnout. -
Education must teach emotional literacy.
Schools and colleges should train young women (and men) to identify stress and seek help early. -
Government and community programs need to reach Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, where mental health remains taboo.
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Families must evolve.
The conversation starts at home — where empathy should replace expectation.
In urban India, where women are joining the workforce in record numbers, the double shift — paid work followed by unpaid domestic labor — remains the norm. The National Sample Survey shows that Indian women perform 577% more unpaid care work than men.
This invisible labor fuels exhaustion that no productivity app can fix.
As Priya Iyer, a marketing manager from Bengaluru, explains:
“Everyone applauds when I get promoted. No one asks how I manage dinner at 10 PM after a 12-hour workday.”
Remote Work, Real Strain
The pandemic-era promise of “flexibility” for women turned out to be a mixed blessing.
While remote work allowed many to stay employed, it also blurred boundaries — turning homes into workplaces and workdays into 24-hour cycles.
Surveys by Microsoft India and Monster.com revealed that 65% of working women found remote work more mentally draining due to overlapping family duties and lack of personal space.
The kitchen table became a conference desk.
Zoom meetings replaced lunch breaks.
“Work from home” quietly became “live at work.”
For mothers and caregivers, this hybrid fatigue was especially severe. Many reported feeling “constantly on call” — for both office and family — leaving no room for mental rest.
“My home became my office, my child’s school, and my parents’ hospital room — all at once,” says Ritu Mahapatra, an HR executive from Bhubaneswar.
“There was no escape from responsibility. Just guilt, all day.”
The Cultural Taboo Around Mental Health
In India, mental health conversations are gaining visibility — but gendered stigma persists.
Men are discouraged from appearing “weak,” while women are expected to suppress stress and carry on gracefully.
Phrases like “she’s too emotional” or “she can’t handle pressure” discourage women from speaking up about anxiety or burnout.
Even when therapy is accessible, societal judgment often isn’t.
In smaller cities, cultural silence around mental health remains louder. A 2024 National Mental Health Survey found that fewer than 10% of working women in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities have access to professional mental health support.
Instead, women turn to informal coping methods — prayer, journaling, or late-night phone calls with friends — while the root causes remain unaddressed.
As psychologist Anamika Patnaik from Cuttack explains:
“We’re raising women to be emotionally intelligent but not emotionally honest. That’s the tragedy.”
Workplace Bias and Burnout
While corporate India is championing diversity, the workplace still isn’t equally kind to women.
Many face the “invisible bias” — being overlooked for promotions after maternity leave, expected to “prove” commitment, or subtly sidelined in leadership discussions.
The result? Emotional fatigue.
A 2025 study by LinkedIn India found that:
Even progressive companies with “wellness programs” often overlook gender-specific challenges. Meditation apps and webinars can’t solve structural stress when women still face pay gaps, bias, and expectations of constant availability.
“A one-hour yoga session won’t fix a toxic manager,” laughs Sonal Mehra, a design lead from Gurugram.
“We need empathy, not just activities.”
The Unpaid Price of Caregiving
For working women, caregiving is both an act of love and a source of burnout.
India’s ageing population and nuclear family structures mean that women often care for elderly parents or in-laws, alongside managing careers and children. Unlike Western countries with formal caregiving systems, India relies on invisible female labor to sustain families.
A study by Population Foundation of India found that 75% of family caregivers are women, and most also hold jobs outside the home.
This “sandwich generation” — caught between caring for children and ageing parents — faces chronic exhaustion and anxiety.
Yet, caregiving is rarely acknowledged as labor. Women internalize guilt for feeling tired or resentful, which deepens emotional distress.
As therapist Shreya Sen notes,
“When women collapse, families panic. But when they ask for rest, families question.”
Mental Health and Economic Inequality
While urban professionals grapple with burnout, women in India’s informal sectors face a different — but equally grave — mental health crisis.
Domestic workers, garment factory laborers, healthcare workers, and sanitation staff often endure toxic work conditions, harassment, and job insecurity, with little mental health support.
NGOs like SEWA and Mann Talks report rising cases of anxiety and depression among women in low-income jobs post-pandemic. Yet, access to therapy, paid leave, or even emotional validation remains rare.
The gap between wellness awareness and wellness access reflects a deeper inequality — one where mental health has become a privilege.
The Cost of Silence
Unchecked stress doesn’t just affect mental health — it impacts productivity, family life, and the economy.
According to a World Bank estimate, India loses around $1.03 trillion annually in productivity due to mental health disorders.
Women, being more prone to stress-related conditions like insomnia, hypertension, and anxiety, face disproportionate impact. Many quietly withdraw from the workforce — not out of lack of talent, but emotional exhaustion.
This silent attrition is costly. Each woman who quits due to burnout represents not just a lost employee, but a lost role model for the next generation.
What Needs to Change
The solution to this crisis isn’t more resilience — it’s more recognition.
As Richa Singh, Co-founder of YourDOST, says:
“The next revolution in women’s empowerment won’t be economic or digital. It will be emotional.”
From Endurance to Expression
India’s working women have broken barriers in every sector — from startups to science, politics to policy. But many are still fighting an internal war no one sees.
The hidden mental health crisis is not a sign of weakness — it’s a signal that a generation of women is being stretched beyond human limits in pursuit of balance.
Digital India, startup India, and skill India all promise empowerment — but the next step must be Healing India.
Because when women thrive mentally, nations prosper emotionally.
