Who cares? The Invisible Care Work Sector

In preparation for the 100th year of India’s Independence, the year 2022 started with the Government of India rolling out extensive consultations with industry experts, social sector organizations, institutional experts etc. to create a vision and plan for a “future-ready India”. The idea is to amalgamate new technology, process reform, innovation and stakeholder collaboration at various levels to position and propel India as a global leader in major growth sectors. Based on the various plan documents that industry bodies and consulting firms came up with thereafter, we can broadly summarize the key mandates set for India as the 4Ds: Digitization, Delivery, Decarbonization and Development that is inclusive and equitable. However, the “gap analysis” on which the goals and plans outlined by organizations like FICCI, McKinsey & Company or PwC, to name a few, are based, have a gaping gap that we often fail to notice.

A common theme across the sustainable and inclusive growth plans for India is the creation of more jobs, bringing more women in the workforce and unlocking its demographic potential across various sectors. The recommendations, however, appear insufficiently researched. The major constraints which cause the current gender gap in labour force participation rate in India and its steadily declining numbers are not adequately addressed. One of these constraints is the current lack of focused policy interventions and awareness on the issue of unpaid care labour.

Unpaid Care Work is the foundation of a well-functioning society and contributes to the economy in many different ways. It is therefore quite unfortunate that this issue remains invisible and overlooked in economic growth discussions. Women and girls bear the burden of the domestic duties, childcare, elderly care, and other non-economic activities that are labour intensive but not counted as labour. It is an undervalued, unrecognised job that keeps women and girls away from jobs. Additionally, it perpetuates poverty, gender-based violence, discrimination and gender disparity at workplaces. Which is why, the complete absence of any discussion or emphasis on this significant issue, in stakeholder consultations meant to empower India’s female population as we prepare for 100 years of Independence, warrants attention.

What do we mean?

While the suggestions for investments and policy interventions, to unlock India’s true potential by 2047, include tackling the gender gap in workforce participation, they remain limited to education, skill development, basic amenities or workplace policies. These are aimed at either preparing more women to enter work or retain them in high potential sectors. There isn’t enough discussion on how to help the millions of women who are educated, talented and skilled but still cannot return to the workforce after a break to raise children, care for elderly family members and other reasons. A large segment of well qualified women, willing and capable of working, are not counted for in the workforce because of the unequal distribution of care work that falls in a woman’s domain. The discrimination that results from this is a major reason behind India being one of the worst ranking nations in gender parity index.

Oxfam India's comprehensive study as part of the 'India Discrimination Report 2022' shows that discrimination causes 100 per cent of employment inequality faced by women in rural areas in labour market and 98 per cent in urban areas.

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2021, the WPR (Worker Population Ratio) is lower amongst women with advanced levels of education (37.3 percent) as compared to those with tertiary education (39.1 percent) and basic education (37.9 percent). The WPR of illiterate female population (rural and urban combined) is 40.3 percent, which is nearly half as compared to that of men (79.5 percent) but higher in comparison to the literate and educated population of women.?Clearly, lack of education is not the biggest constraint behind India’s low female LFPR. It is the lack of access to equal opportunity.

The good news is that a segment of India Inc. is preparing to tap into this high-potential female workforce through initiatives and policies aimed at attracting or facilitating the return of women to the workforce following career breaks. These improvements, however, are still in their early phases and are not part of their primary focus. Also, many key sectors where women have proven their excellence, like education and healthcare, have no such provisions yet to facilitate return of qualified women to their jobs after a break.

Why are we talking about this?

According to a study done by ActionAid in 2017, unpaid care work constitutes about 35% of India’s GDP and is equivalent to about 182% of the total government tax revenue. The economic contribution of unpaid care work is roughly estimated at $10 trillion per year, around 13% of global GDP, yet it is not recognised as “work” that is a vital input into economic growth.

Data collected by a Time-Use Survey [1] done by National Statistical Office (NSO), in 2019, shows that the amount of time that women have to spend on unpaid care giving services is much higher as compared to men. An Indian woman does 243 minutes (four hours) of domestic work a day, whereas the average time of an Indian man spends doing chores at home is only 25 minutes. Among those with a paid job, about 81% women work at home also, while only about 26% of men do both. A woman is basically spending 19.5% of her productive time in household chores for which she receives no pay. Men, on the other hand, spend only about 2.3% of their time on chores. This disparity becomes worse when there are emergencies or circumstances which prioritize the need for domestic care work, like a pandemic.

Even when the work is outsourced to hired help, in most cases the helper is a woman. Domestic workers in India are highly unorganised and not covered by any labour laws or social protection laws, as a result. The fact that about 65% of the domestic workers in India are women[2], majority of them migrants, further highlights that uneconomic[3] care work is highly feminized. This increases the vulnerability of women and pushes most of their work out of economic calculations that drive policy decisions or welfare measures.

Safe drinking water counts for nothing. A pollution-free environment counts for nothing. Even some people - namely women - count for nothing. This is the case, at least, according to the United Nations System of National Accounts.

-Counting for Nothing, by Marilyn Waring

Studies show that if women were to spend less time on unpaid care work in India, they would add USD 300 billion to the GDP. There can be an additional 11 million jobs generated if unpaid work is recognized and there is public investment of even 2%?of GDP in the care economy.

However, deep-rooted patriarchal norms that expect a woman to prioritize household responsibilities over professional ambitions, along with a lack of agency support for care work, create a vicious cycle of disempowerment and harm the economy in ways that we have yet to openly acknowledge.

What does this lead to?

The under valuation and unfair distribution of unpaid care work also has a tangible link with increase in gender discrimination, violence against women and pay disparity, apart from other issues. An Oxfam report (2020) established that unpaid care work, which falls largely under a woman’s domain, is not seen as productive labour or a source of income. The uneconomic nature of this work makes women financially dependent on male members of the household and more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. This diminishes the position of the women in the household, making their needs and right go unnoticed and fosters the perception that such work is a woman's primary obligation.

Pay disparity or unequal opportunities at work are also perpetuated by the constraints that women have to face to maintain work-life balance due to the responsibility of care work at home. As a result, they either settle for low paying jobs or withdraw.

According to the first-ever estimates of the gender inequality in global earnings presented in the World Inequality Report 2022, men in India capture 82% of labour income, while women earn just 18%.

“Unpaid care work is likely to prevent women from participating in the labour market, and, when they do work, to prevent them from attaining high-paying positions. When paid and unpaid work are combined, women’s contribution to work increases substantially and thus makes the female labour income share appear even more unfair,” –World Inequality Report 2022

This phenomenon is further corroborated by the Monster Salary Index survey which reports that women in India earn 19 per cent less than their male counterparts and 60 per cent working women in India feel that there is discrimination at work.

"We still ask women to work like they don't have kids and parent like they don't work. It's well past time to change all that."?

- Forget "Having It All", by Amy Westervelt

What can we do about it?

The most effective way to increase the female LFPR (Labour Force Participation Rate) is clearly the recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care labour in such a way that it empowers more women to return to work. Accounting for Unpaid Care Work (UCW) in statistical systems and economic growth measurements, through time use surveys, for example, is key to designing policy interventions that can ease the constraints on women’s time, empowering them to invest their time in education or employment.?

The State must fund, regulate and facilitate provisions for better access to public services (health, education, water and sanitation etc), child care and care for the elderly to reduce the burden of care work on women and help them maintain better work-life balance. It should especially facilitate currently not-working parents, to enter the labour market by reducing the time and effort they must put in care work. Another gap that needs intervention is creating space for re-entry of qualified women in STEM jobs, and academic institutions. We don't need complex metrics or mechanisms to acknowledge that the skills women acquire in their job as a mother, care giver, or home maker, along with their education, are worthy of being counted.

A little understood fact is that provision of childcare facilities or longer maternity benefits by the employer does not help reduce or redistribute the unfair burden of this care work on women. Support for care work has to be made gender neutral. Employers can help redistribute unpaid care labour by providing equal amount of maternity and paternity leaves and flexible work schedules to encourage an equal sharing of care responsibility at home. Organisations also need to be compliant with policy guidelines such as equal pay, crèche facilities, POSH, etc. to create a conducive environment for women to work and feel valued.

On the social front, we must encourage greater participation of male members of the household in recognizing the value of care work done by women. We need to de-feminize home-based care services by involving more men in creating awareness and tackling stereotypes that prevent men from sharing the domestic workload.

The unpaid care labour sector, if tapped into, has the potential to address a diverse range of issues related to the diversity in workforce, quality in education and efficiency in service delivery, among other things.?We are closer to a century of our independence, but real freedom, participation, and empowerment comes from a society that creates equal opportunity for all. India’s Century Vision would be incomplete without this as part of its key agenda.

We all must Care, and Care must Count.

[1] A survey done by Government of India to measure participation of men, women and other groups of persons in paid and unpaid activities

[2] While official data show that India has 4.75 million domestic workers, 3 million of them are women, the International Labour Organization believes the true figure is substantially higher, ranging from 20 to 80 million.

[3] According to the United Nations System of National Accounts of 1993, shopping, cleaning, cooking, care for children, sick or elderly, voluntary work for community services etc are classified as those domestic and personal services for which no entries are recorded in the accounts when they are produced and consumed within the same household. (System of National Accounts) These are therefore part of the uneconomic unpaid care work.