Digital Naukri Challenge
Homemakers as Nation Builders
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A nation of homebound women
There are around 209 million out-of-workforce Indian women who don't step outside their homes even once a day. If they formed a nation, it would be the 8th most populous in the world — larger than Russia, Mexico, or Japan.
Source: NSS Time Use Survey, 2019 · Worldometer
We wanted to turn this setback into an opportunity. If they can't go to work, can work come to them?
The Digital Naukri Challenge was launched in November 2024 asking an ambitious question: can flexible, tech-enabled work models unlock digital careers for millions of out-of-workforce Indian women?
This grand challenge is trying to build evidence and momentum that test these new-age work models across:
Consistency of workers' income
— offered by the work model
The organisations competing in the challenge (challengers) must demonstrate evidence validating the above parameters, over two phases: viability and scalability. The viability phase is aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of the work model based on the relevant parameters. The top four challengers received ₹35 lakhs each as a recognition of their impact measured and validated through an independent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) partner.
Four finalists are now competing in the scalability phase. A winner and a runner-up will be selected from these top 4, and will be awarded ₹3–3.5 Cr and ₹1–1.5 Cr respectively. The objective is to reward work models that have demonstrated the clearest evidence of scale in generating sustainable livelihoods for low-resource, low-mobility women.
Challenge journey
Ten milestones over two years — from open call to winner reveal — designed to
filter, sharpen and scale flexible digital work models for Indian women.
Meet the finalists
who have received
digital naukris
income received
by workers
by the digital
job opportunity
achieved by
the work model
readiness &
potential for scale
Meet the challengers
work model
of work
income
longevity
implementation
innovation
women focus
Powering the challenge
Ecosystem partners
Prize interventions
Videos
Blog
Sanmati 2.0 decoded: what India's digital work future means for women
India's digital economy is reshaping the future of work but women will benefit only if inclusion is built by design. Drawing from early insights from Sanmati 2.0, this blog unpacks the forces driving digital work, the barriers women continue to face, and what it will take to create empowering pathways across the digital value chain.
What's the demand landscape for emerging data & digital services jobs?
As India's digital economy expands, organisations across diverse sectors are experimenting with new work models that can bring women into meaningful, flexible, and dignified employment. This next phase of learning focuses on how organisations can build stable and sustainable demand for this work.
What women want from digital work: Early learnings from the DNC
Discover what women value most in digital work. Through the Digital Naukri Challenge, we explore how flexibility, stability and dignity are changing the way women earn.
