Examine the significance of recognising women’s unpaid domestic and care work for achieving gender equality and inclusive development in India.

Introduction

Unpaid domestic and care work—including cooking, cleaning, childcare, elderly care, and household management—forms the invisible foundation of the economy. Despite its immense social and economic value, such work remains largely unrecognized in conventional measures of productivity and income. Recognising women's unpaid work is essential for advancing gender equality, social justice, and inclusive development.

Significance of Recognising Unpaid Domestic and Care Work

1. Advancing Gender Equality

• Acknowledges women's contribution to households and society beyond paid employment.
• Challenges patriarchal norms that treat domestic work as a natural obligation rather than productive labour.
• Strengthens women's dignity, agency, and bargaining power within families.

2. Economic Recognition of Invisible Labour

• Unpaid care work sustains the labour force and contributes indirectly to economic growth.
• Recognition can improve the accuracy of economic and social policy formulation.
• Highlights the need for gender-responsive budgeting and social protection measures.

Value Addition: The ILO estimates that unpaid care work contributes substantially to the economy but remains excluded from GDP calculations.

3. Enhancing Women's Labour Force Participation

• Recognition of care responsibilities can encourage policies such as childcare facilities, parental leave, and flexible work arrangements.
• Reduces barriers preventing women from entering and remaining in the workforce.

4. Social Justice and Inclusive Development

• Helps address the disproportionate burden of unpaid work borne by women.
• Promotes equitable sharing of household responsibilities.
• Supports SDG-5 (Gender Equality) and SDG-10 (Reduced Inequalities).

5. Strengthening Welfare and Compensation Frameworks

• Valuation of unpaid work can guide compensation in accident claims, insurance, and social security schemes.

Case Law

Kirti v. Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. (2021): The Supreme Court recognized the economic value of homemakers' work and held that it must be considered while calculating compensation.

Challenges

• Difficulty in measuring and monetising unpaid work.
• Risk of reinforcing traditional gender roles if recognition is not accompanied by redistribution of care responsibilities.
• Limited availability of time-use data.

Diagram

      Unpaid Domestic & Care Work
                   │
      ┌────────────┼────────────┐
      │            │            │
 Gender      Economic       Social
 Equality   Recognition    Inclusion
      │            │            │
      └────────────┼────────────┘
                   │
        Inclusive Development

Conclusion

Recognising women's unpaid domestic and care work is a vital step toward achieving substantive gender equality and inclusive development. However, recognition must be accompanied by reduction and redistribution of care burdens, supportive public policies, and social transformation to ensure that women enjoy equal opportunities in both the household and the economy.

Value Addition (Data): According to the Time Use Survey 2019, women in India spend significantly more time on unpaid domestic and caregiving activities than men, highlighting the gendered nature of care work.