SUKUMAR SAH
Behind India’s economic engine lies an invisible workforce — women who cook, clean, nurse, and care without pay. Their labour, valued at trillions if monetised, remains outside GDP and policy reckoning.
Despite rising education and access, female labour force participation (FLFP) in India has stagnated at around 25 per cent, among the lowest in the G20 countries. The paradox is stark: as India urbanises and aspires to middle-income status, it is still constrained by the economics of patriarchy. Recognising and redistributing care work isn’t a feminist aspiration; it’s an economic imperative.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24, under 7 per cent of women aged 15 and above are part of the labour force, compared to nearly 78 per cent of men.
The OECD’s 2024 Gender Data Portal shows Indian women spend nearly five hours daily on unpaid domestic and caregiving tasks — six times more than men. The IMF estimates that if unpaid care work were valued at minimum wage rates, it could add the equivalent of 20 per cent to India’s GDP. Yet this immense contribution remains absent from fiscal and national accounts.
Labour force needs them, but there’s no policy push to recognise and redistribute their care giving work
The Economic Survey 2019-20 was the first to quantify this gap, arguing that closing the gender participation divide could lift GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points annually. Since then, little has moved.
The NITI Aayog’s 2023 Discussion Paper on Gender and Economic Empowerment acknowledged that “the care burden remains the single largest barrier to women’s participation in paid work,” but stopped short of proposing an integrated national care policy.
The 16th Finance Commission, which is deliberating the inclusion of new equity parameters for fiscal transfers, has an opportunity to bring gender budgeting and care infrastructure funding into the formula — a move that could finally link fiscal devolution to measurable social inclusion outcomes.
Current policy remains piecemeal. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 extended paid leave to 26 weeks, but the cost burden on employers discouraged private-sector hiring of women. The National Creche Scheme, meant to support working mothers, has seen funding fall from ₹200 crore in FY18 to less than ₹75 crore in FY24. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, offering conditional maternity benefits, covers barely half of eligible women.
Meanwhile, progressive states like Tamil Nadu, with its Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai (₹1,000 monthly income support), and Kerala, through its Kudumbashree model, have attempted gendered income support — but these are welfare substitutes, not systemic solutions.
Globally, the economic case for investing in the care economy is well established. The ILO’s 2023 Care Economy Report found that every dollar invested in care services generates twice the return in GDP and creates 30 jobs per $1 million spent. Japan’s Long-Term Care Insurance Act (2000) and Nordic universal childcare systems offer clear lessons — investments in care infrastructure raise both female participation and productivity.
India, however, continues to treat care as a private obligation rather than public infrastructure. There is no national policy linking care services, labour markets, and fiscal planning. Incorporating care economy funding into state-level gender budgets, incentivising corporate childcare partnerships, and expanding time-use surveys could be transformative.