Context: The Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) has long been a central focus in discussions around women's empowerment. While India's FLFPR has improved from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 37% in 2022-23, it still falls short compared to the world average of 47.8% (2022). Moreover, a significant portion of this participation comprises unpaid helpers in household enterprises, highlighting the persistent issue of unpaid labor among women.
This article explores -
- what is Unpaid care work
- Need for recognition of unpaid care work
- several challenges while Calculating unpaid care work
- Potential solutions to create a more inclusive and equitable workforce.
About Unpaid care work
According to OECD, refers to all unpaid services provided within a household for its members, including care of persons, housework and voluntary community work. These activities are considered work because theoretically, one could pay a third person to perform them.
- Unpaid = the individual performing this activity is not remunerated
- Care = the activity provides what is necessary for the health, well-being, maintenance, and protection of someone or something
- Work = the activity involves mental or physical effort and is costly in terms of time resources
Need for recognition of unpaid care work
- Mis-estimation of Economic activity: Non-inclusion of unpaid care work in national accounting statistics like GDP grossly misestimates the level of economic activity.
- If unpaid care work were assigned a monetary value, it would constitute 9% of the global GDP.
- Female Labour Participation: Unpaid care work is a significant barrier preventing women from entering and staying in the workforce, as highlighted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). This burden creates "time poverty," restricting women's ability to engage in paid employment and acquire the skills necessary for better job opportunities. This challenge is not unique to India; globally, in 2016, 46.7% of women cited domestic duties as the reason for their absence from the workforce, compared to only 6.3% of men.
- Wage Gap: often domestic care work by women is treated as unproductive and it is reflected in low wages for women in the labour market when compared to men.
- Need for a Care Economy: India's demographic landscape is expected to change between 2020 to 2050, necessitating more elderly care alongside continuing levels of childcare.
- By 2050, the proportion of elderly persons is expected to increase to 20.8% of the population, i.e. about 347 million persons. Moreover, even as the proportion of children reduces marginally to 18%, the number of children will still be close to 300 million.
Calculating unpaid care work presents several challenges, as outlined below with examples:
- Perception of "Work": Unpaid care work is often not considered 'work' in the traditional sense. For instance, a mother caring for her children or a spouse looking after an elderly partner may not view these responsibilities as 'work' despite the significant time and effort involved. Consequently, when surveys ask about 'work,' respondents may exclude care activities from their responses, leading to underreporting.
- Subjectivity and Variation: The nature of care work varies widely and can be highly subjective. Consider the task of cooking meals: one person might cook three meals a day from scratch, while another might use pre-packaged foods, making it challenging to standardize measurements. Additionally, caregiving responsibilities change over time – caring for a toddler differs from caring for a teenager, making it difficult to capture the full spectrum of care work.
- Invisible Labor: Much of care work is invisible. Emotional support, mental labor (like planning and organizing), and managing family dynamics are essential components of caregiving but often go unnoticed. For example, a caregiver may spend hours coordinating doctor's appointments and managing medications, which are critical aspects of care but not easily quantifiable.
- Seasonality: Care work can vary seasonally. Consider holiday preparations – the workload for cooking, decorating, and gift-giving increases significantly during certain times of the year. These fluctuations make it challenging to capture the consistent level of care work throughout the year.
- Cultural Differences: Cultural norms significantly impact how care work is perceived and distributed within households. For example, in some cultures, extended family members often share caregiving responsibilities, while in others, it may fall primarily on women. These cultural variations complicate efforts to standardize measurement across diverse societies.
- Data Collection Methods: Traditional data collection methods like surveys may not fully capture care work. Respondents may forget or underestimate the time spent on caregiving, especially if it's a continuous, fragmented task. They may also not recognize certain caregiving activities as 'work,' leading to inaccuracies in reporting.
- Valuation of Care Work: Assigning a monetary value to care work is complex. For example, estimating the economic value of a stay-at-home parent's contributions involves considering factors like the cost of hiring childcare, cooking, cleaning, and emotional support. These intangible contributions are challenging to quantify accurately.
Key Takeaways from Article
- Addressing Childcare Needs: Some State governments have focused on building support services through the Anganwadi network.
- The 2024-25 Budget increased the Ministry of Women and Child Development's budget for the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme by 3%.
- Community-Based Creches: Various models of community-based creches are operational in parts of some States, in partnership with government and non-government bodies. There is a need to review these models for replicability, financial sustainability, and scalability.
- Demand for Hired Caregivers: Rising demand for hired caregivers in urban and peri-urban areas but this sector lacks regulation, leaving domestic workers who double as caregivers without training, protection, or standards. Bodies like the Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council and the Healthcare Sector Skill Council are responsible for skilling but need more support.
- Policy Framework: A comprehensive policy is needed to define the care ecosystem from a life course perspective.
- A multi-ministerial committee involving the Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Labour and Employment, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship should be initiated.
Way Forward
- Adequate Investment in care infrastructure such as Pre-Primary Education, Health, Electricity, drinking water, LPG connection etc. For example, A 2017 analysis by the Women’s Budget Group found that if an additional 2 percent of the GDP were invested in the Indian health and care sector, the country could generate 11 million additional jobs, nearly one-third of which would go to women.
- Social Protection Policies:
- Allow tax deductions of care-related expenses by the households for formalisation of domestic workers.
- Provide for the cash transfer to women so that they can purchase childcare services from domestic workers.
- Promote active labour market policies:
- Paid maternity leave and Paternity leave to care for the children.
- Efficient implementation of Public Works Programme such as MGNREGA
- Enhance skill set through vocational training and retraining to enhance employability.
- Provide Gender-sensitive work environments such as reduced or flexible working hours.
- Facilitate entry of women into Gig Economy
- Nurture and promote women led SHGs.
- Redistribute: Support NGOs and Private sector to care for the children and Elderly Ex: Old age homes, Pre-Primary Schools etc.
The above-mentioned strategies can contribute to meeting goals of SDG 1 (end poverty); SDG 3 (ensure healthy lives); SDG 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education); SDG 5 (achieve gender equality); SDG 6 (ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation) etc.
Conclusion: Increasing women’s participation in the labor force requires addressing the entire spectrum of care responsibilities. Creating a supportive care ecosystem will help reduce gender inequality and empower women economically, benefiting both society and the economy as a whole as highlighted by The World Economic Forum’s report on the ‘Future of Care Economy’ which highlights three perspectives: economic productivity, business opportunity, and human rights (gender equality and disability inclusion).