<\/p>\n
News:<\/span><\/b> Recently, the World has celebrated March 8 as International Women\u2019s Day. This year, to commemorate International Women\u2019s Day, the ILO brought out its new report titled, <\/span>\u2018Care at work: investing in care leave and services for a more gender-equal world of work\u201d<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It includes care work, which encompasses <\/span>direct<\/span><\/b> activities<\/span><\/b> such as feeding a baby or nursing an ill partner, and <\/span>indirect activities<\/span><\/b> such as cooking and cleaning work. The care work may be<\/span> paid<\/span><\/b> (such as domestic workers and anganwadis in India) or <\/span>unpaid <\/span><\/b>in nature<\/span>.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is worth mentioning that care work is vital for human well-being and economies across the world.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The care services have the potential to create an <\/span>additional 300 million jobs <\/span><\/b>globally. Most of these jobs will be for women. The focus on care services can ensure <\/span>female labour force participation<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The importance of care work is now widely acknowledged. It has been covered in various international commitments such as the <\/span>SDGs<\/span><\/b> and the <\/span>International Labour Organization (ILO)\u2019s Centenary Declaration<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unpaid care work:<\/span><\/b> It is linked to labour market inequalities. It has not received adequate attention in policy formulation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Paid care workers<\/span><\/b>: These also struggle to access rights and entitlements as workers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At present, the care economy has grown a lot. But the investment in the sector has not taken the same pace.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Maternity leave is a universal human and labour right. It remains unfulfilled across countries.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Good measures taken so far in India<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India offers 26 weeks of maternity leave. It is more than against the ILO\u2019s standard mandate of 14 weeks.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Indian laws mandates the factories and other establishments to provide the cr\u00e8che facility.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and the minimum wage legislations have been made applicable to domestic workers in India.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Issues<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>maternity leave<\/span><\/b> in India is restricted to a <\/span>tiny proportion of women workers<\/span><\/b>. It is limited to formally employed women. However, <\/span>89% <\/span><\/b>of employed women are in <\/span>informal employment.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>paternity leave <\/span><\/b>is not provided in many countries, including India. It further exacerbates gender inequity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In India, access to quality and affordable childcare, elderly care and care for people with disabilities services is a challenge.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Care workers like childcare and anganwadi workers have not been recognised as <\/span>professional work<\/span><\/b> in India. Therefore, they do not have requisite access to workers\u2019 rights and entitlements<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The domestic workers do not have access to <\/span>decent work<\/span><\/b>. They do not have <\/span>social or health protection measures<\/span><\/b>. The fact that 26 lakhs of the 39 lakh domestic workers in India are female worsens the situation<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India spends less than 1% of its GDP on the care economy;\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There government need to increased percentage of spending on care economy in India.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The government need to develop a <\/span>strategy and action plan<\/span><\/b> for improved care policies and decent working conditions for care workers. It should frame them while <\/span>consulting<\/span><\/b> employers\u2019, workers\u2019 organisations and the relevant <\/span>stakeholders<\/span><\/b> in the sector.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The decision makers can adopt a <\/span>5R framework<\/span><\/b> proposed by the ILO. It refers to <\/span>Recognition<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>Reduction<\/span><\/b>, and <\/span>Redistribution<\/span><\/b> of unpaid care work, promotes <\/span>Rewarding<\/span><\/b> care workers with more and decent work, and enables their <\/span>Representation<\/span><\/b> in social dialogue and collective bargaining.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The domestic workers should have<\/span> rights <\/span><\/b>and access to fair wages, and good working conditions. They should have access to social protection, among other benefits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>International Labour Organization (ILO) <\/span><\/b>should take a lead to set<\/span> labour standards, develop policies<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>devise programmes <\/span><\/b>to promote decent work for all women and men. It is the only <\/span>tripartite UN agency<\/span><\/b> that brings together governments, employers, and workers of 187 member States.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>paternity leave <\/span><\/b>should be recognised. It acts as an enabler for both mothers and fathers to better <\/span>balance work <\/span><\/b>and <\/span>family responsibilities<\/span><\/b> throughout their lives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The right steps to improve the care economy can lead to <\/span>child development, aging in dignity <\/span><\/b>and <\/span>independent living a<\/span><\/b>nd also generate more and better employment opportunities, especially for women.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on an article \u201cGetting serious about supporting the care economy<\/strong>\u201d published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 11<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong> April 2022<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News: Recently, the World has celebrated March 8 as International Women\u2019s Day. This year, to commemorate International Women\u2019s Day, the ILO brought out its new report titled, \u2018Care at work: investing in care leave and services for a more gender-equal world of work\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 What is Care economy? It includes care work, which encompasses direct activities… Continue reading Getting serious about supporting the care economy\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-178725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700793767,"cached_date":1701531550},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is Care economy<\/span><\/b>?<\/span><\/h5>\n
Importance of focusing on care services<\/span><\/b><\/h5>\n
What are the issues in care work?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
What are achievements and issues in the story of the care economy in India?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
Ways Forward<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n