Sericulture: An Icon of Youth and Women Empowerment in Viksit Bharat

Abstract

Sericulture links biological production, household labour and textile manufacture in a value chain that remains unusually rooted in rural India. Its short production cycles, scope for home-based work and demand for labour have encouraged its portrayal as an inclusive route to employment, women’s empowerment and youth entrepreneurship. This critical narrative review examines whether that portrayal is supported by evidence and under what conditions socioeconomic benefits are likely to endure. Literature published from January 1990 to 5 June 2026 was identified through Google Scholar, PubMed, Directory of Open Access Journals, Crossref Metadata Search and searches of official Indian institutional websites, supplemented by backward and forward citation searching. Evidence was appraised for design, sampling, measurement, causal plausibility, geographical transferability and attention to gendered and generational inequalities. The evidence consistently shows that women supply substantial labour in mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing and reeling, while sericulture can diversify household income and create local work. Yet participation is not equivalent to empowerment. Women often remain concentrated in labour-intensive nodes while men retain control over land, credit, market transactions, digital services and income. Evidence specific to young people is much thinner than evidence on women; claims that sericulture retains youth or prevents migration are commonly inferred from employment potential rather than demonstrated through longitudinal comparison. Training improves knowledge and reported adoption, but cross-sectional designs, purposive samples and programme-selection effects weaken causal attribution. Market volatility, disease and climate exposure, occupational hazards, unpaid care work, limited finance and weak bargaining power can shift risk towards households. The review therefore reframes sericulture as a conditional platform for empowerment rather than an inherently empowering activity. Durable gains require asset rights, safe work, accessible finance, reliable extension, producer organisation, value addition and gender-responsive digital and market institutions. Future evaluations should measure agency, time use, enterprise survival and income control, disaggregate outcomes by age and gender, and employ credible comparison groups over multiple production cycles.