Unpaid Care Work

Unpaid care work refers to the work done for the purpose of caring and looking after others without getting any monetary benefits for the work. Every day, individuals spend a lot of time cooking, cleaning, water and fuel collection and caring for others, such as the ill, the elderly and children and they are not paid for these activities. Thus, the term unpaid care and domestic work includes any activity carried out on an unpaid basis in the home, including direct care for individuals, such as children or the elderly, as well as indirect care, such as cooking, cleaning, and fetching water. A significant contribution of unpaid care work is that it maintains and enhances human capabilities, which benefits both the recipients and society at large. In addition to being a human rights issue, unpaid care work has economic development implications as well. In addition to enhancing the quality of human resources and the development of human capabilities, investing in care can contribute to long-term economic growth. Each word in the term ‘unpaid care work’ is important:
o Unpaid: because the person doing the activity does not receive monetary remuneration or wages for it;
o Care: meaning that the activity serves people and their well-being. The need for care is universal, and without it, societies cannot function and economies cannot grow.
o Work: Since a third party could theoretically perform these activities for pay, they are considered work. This means that the activity has a cost in terms of time and energy and arises out of a social or contractual obligation, such as marriage or less formal social relationships.

Society and the economy

Society and the economy cannot function efficiently without these activities. Nonetheless, it is hardly ever documented as ‘work’. However, unpaid care work is widely debated in academic circles and policy circles as the burden of unpaid care work is disproportionately borne by women and girls, making them suffer from ‘time poverty’. A study by International Labour Organisation estimated that a staggering 76 percent of the care work is performed by women and girls, and over and above that, this work is omitted while making GDP calculations. Women’s rights advocates have long acknowledged that the unequal distribution of unpaid care work contributes significantly to gender inequality. The issue is now increasingly being acknowledged as a constraint to economic growth and women’s economic empowerment in mainstream economic policy discussions.

Sustainable Development Goal

Target 5.4 has been adopted under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 to address the burden of unpaid care work to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment which states: “Recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate”. Women’s economic empowerment depends on seven critical factors, one of which is unpaid care work. A three Rs strategy namely, recognise, reduce, and redistribute should be used. It is suggested that women’s economic empowerment hinges on the recognition, reduction, and redistribution of unpaid care work as one of the seven key drivers.
Women are disadvantaged in the labor market due to gender inequality related to unpaid care work. As a result of women’s unequal share of unpaid work, they are less likely to participate in the labor force as well as access to better quality jobs, contributing to gender wage inequalities’.

International Labour Organization

According to the International Labour Organization (2018), 41% of those who don’t work are outside the labour market due to unpaid care responsibilities. In countries with disproportionately higher burden of unpaid care on women, the reduction in gender gaps in education has not translated into better outcomes for women in the labour market. The recent time use survey 2019 report in India reveals that the average Indian woman spends 19.5% of her time doing unpaid domestic work and caring for her family, while the average Indian man only spends 2.5% of his time doing the same.
As much as 10 and 39 percent of Gross Domestic Product is attributed to unpaid care and domestic work, which has a more significant contribution to the economy than manufacturing, commerce, or transportation.