The COVID-19 pandemic has seen Indian women’s workforce participation rates already among the world’s lowest fall further. In November 2020, 2% fewer men but 13% fewer women were employed or looking for jobs than a year ago, data show. Urban women were the worst hit. As numerous development agencies have warned, and we have reported, the pandemic and the resultant economic downturn threaten to worsen women’s already precarious standing in the job market and the economy. Yet, improving women’s workforce participation could be key to economic recovery in the pre-COVID world, one estimate had shown, getting even 50% of Indian women into paid work could boost GDP by 1.5 percentage points per year.