Care Economy

Women’s low labour force participation in India is closely linked to the unequal burden of unpaid care and domestic work. Evidence from India’s Time Use Survey shows that women and girls spend significantly more time on unpaid household and caregiving responsibilities than men and boys, while paid care work remains largely feminised, undervalued, and characterised by low wages and limited social protection. Addressing the care economy is therefore critical to advancing women’s economic participation and building inclusive labour markets.

IWWAGE’s work on the care economy focuses on:

Building evidence through collaboration

Generating and co-creating policy-relevant evidence in partnership with research institutions, governments, and civil society to highlight the scale, value, and distribution of care work.

Strengthening care and social infrastructure

Advocating investments in care services and enabling infrastructure such as childcare, elder care, piped water, clean energy, and reliable electricity to reduce women’s unpaid care burden.

Improving measurement and visibility of care work

Advancing better tools and methods to measure unpaid and paid care work, ensuring women’s contributions are visible in data, policy, and planning processes.

Advancing rights and protections for care workers

Supporting policy dialogue on fair wages, social protection, and access to entitlements for paid care workers.

Influencing policy and advocacy

Using evidence to inform policy across national and sub-national levels through sustained engagement with key institutions, including NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and the Ministry of Rural Development.

This body of work has strengthened national and international attention to care workers’ needs, including during India’s G20 Presidency in 2023, and contributed to IWWAGE being recognised by UNESCAP and UN Women (Regional Office) as a Care Champion in the region for 2024.

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2026
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2018

Report

Women’s Work in Select States in India: Opportunities and Challenges

  • December , 2022
  • Sona Mitra
Women comprise nearly half of the world’s working population and therefore potentially half of its labour force. Female labour force participation (FLFP) represent a women decision to be the part of labour force or part of economically inactive population. At present in nearly every country female labor force participation is lower than that of male labour force participation. Female labour force participation in South Asia is among the lowest of any developing region in the world. As per PLFS, FLFPR in rural and urban area are 27.7% and 18.6% respectively. India’s low female labour force participation excludes almost half of the potential working age population, leading to gross underutilisation of women’s talents and capabilities and remains a roadblock in reaping and distributing its demographic advantage. Women participation in labour force varies across different region. The variation is determined by an array of economic and social factors including income growth, educational attainment, marital status and other prevailing local social norms.
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Women comprise nearly half of the world’s working population and therefore potentially half of its labour force. Female labour force participation (FLFP) represent a women decision to be the part of labour force or part of economically inactive population. At present in nearly every country female labor force participation is lower than that of male labour force participation. Female labour force participation in South Asia is among the lowest of any developing region in the world. As per PLFS, FLFPR in rural and urban area are 27.7% and 18.6% respectively. India’s low female labour force participation excludes almost half of the potential working age population, leading to gross underutilisation of women’s talents and capabilities and remains a roadblock in reaping and distributing its demographic advantage. Women participation in labour force varies across different region. The variation is determined by an array of economic and social factors including income growth, educational attainment, marital status and other prevailing local social norms.
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Report

Women and Work: How India Fared in 2021

  • January , 2022
  • IWWAGE , TQH
The year 2021 continued to challenge global recovery efforts, with the second wave of COVID-19 presenting new hurdles. Women and girls were disproportionately impacted, with structural barriers exacerbating the health crisis. As this report is compiled, the Omicron variant remains a threat, highlighting the need for a gender-responsive and equitable recovery. To achieve this, we must design inclusive social safety nets, bridge the gender gap in access to technology, create hybrid work solutions, reduce and redistribute care work, and invest in the care economy. Collecting robust, sex-disaggregated data is crucial to ensure effective, scalable policies and solutions. This report maps the ongoing efforts to bring women back into the workforce and prepare them for the future of work. It highlights key policy and programmatic developments that shaped women’s work in India in 2021. Additionally, the report looks ahead, emphasising new-age skills, entrepreneurship, and non-traditional livelihoods for a self-reliant India. It also sheds light on social indicators influencing women’s workforce participation, including access to resources, health, well-being, and security.
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The year 2021 continued to challenge global recovery efforts, with the second wave of COVID-19 presenting new hurdles. Women and girls were disproportionately impacted, with structural barriers exacerbating the health crisis. As this report is compiled, the Omicron variant remains a threat, highlighting the need for a gender-responsive and equitable recovery. To achieve this, we must design inclusive social safety nets, bridge the gender gap in access to technology, create hybrid work solutions, reduce and redistribute care work, and invest in the care economy. Collecting robust, sex-disaggregated data is crucial to ensure effective, scalable policies and solutions. This report maps the ongoing efforts to bring women back into the workforce and prepare them for the future of work. It highlights key policy and programmatic developments that shaped women’s work in India in 2021. Additionally, the report looks ahead, emphasising new-age skills, entrepreneurship, and non-traditional livelihoods for a self-reliant India. It also sheds light on social indicators influencing women’s workforce participation, including access to resources, health, well-being, and security.
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