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Journalism of Courage
— Ritwika Patgiri
(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Ritwika Patgiri elucidates the care economy and monetised economy.)
In economic literature, the monetisation of an economy is often seen as a “significant aspect of growth and development of less developed economies.” A monetised economy can be defined as an economy where goods and services are sold using money as a medium of exchange.
The monetised economy is characterised by paid labour, formal markets, and economic activities which are quantified and measured. In contrast, the care economy is marked by unpaid care work, double burden of labour, and time poverty.
In a recent policy brief on measuring the care economy, Shamika Ravi, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, noted that prioritising the care economy can lead to a long-term balancing of growth and development of Indian society.
This brings us to the question, how do we define the care economy? Care refers to all activities and relations needed for the existence and well-being of societies. It includes both paid as well as unpaid care work, which are overlapping in nature.
Unpaid care work is often direct, personal, and relational, and is provided without any monetary compensation. Examples include taking care of children, nursing an ill partner and cooking for the family. Paid care work, on the other hand, is performed in exchange for some remuneration or profit. It includes a wide range of personal service workers such as domestic workers, nurses, teachers, etc.
The care economy is further marked by low wages and informalities. Even when the care economy exists in formal markets (the health and education sectors), the remuneration is often low and the work is underestimated. For instance, ASHA workers in India are some of the least paid workers in the world.
Another important characteristic of the care economy is that women are disproportionately represented here. According to the World Health Organisation, women form 70% of the total workers in health and social sectors with a gender pay gap of around 28% on average, making it one of the most biased sectors in terms of wage payments.
The female labour force participation rate (LFPR) in India has been historically declining since 2004-05. However, recent data shows an increase in the female LFPR. The increase, nevertheless, was mostly driven by the rise in self-employment among rural women, particularly in agriculture. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2022-23, the share of women in agriculture has increased to 64%.
Although women work in health and education sectors, their share in traditional monetised economic activities remains low. One reason behind this, as argued by many economists, is the double burden of work that women often face.
The double burden of work can be defined as the unpaid work done at home along with any form of paid work. According to the Time Use Survey of 2019 data, women in the working age group spend approximately seven hours daily on unpaid household work alone. Taking care of the elderly and the children forms a major part of this unpaid domestic work. This large share of unpaid care work prevents women from entering the labour market.
Moreover, the underpayment and undervaluation of care work contributes to its invisibility in economic metrics, resulting in market failure. This market failure leads to increasing time poverty for women along with care and motherhood penalties, which ultimately reduce female labour force participation.
The contribution of care work to India’s GDP has been estimated to be around 15-17%, according to a recent policy brief. This figure underscores the economic value that unpaid and underpaid care work provides, although it is often overlooked in traditional economic measures.
Hence, it can be argued that there needs to be a policy revision to better account for the intersection of care and monetary economies.
The 5R framework provided by the International Labour Organisation has often been suggested as a key to understanding and improving the efficiency, sustainability, and fairness of care work. The framework includes – recognising the social and economic value of paid and unpaid care work; rewarding, remunerating, and representing care work and care workers with professionalised work and equal pay for work of equal value; reducing the burden of unpaid care work on women; redistributing care work within households among all workers and eliminating the sexual division of labour; and reclaiming the public nature of care services.
Keeping the 5R framework in mind, four key policy revisions can be suggested as per Sara Cantillon, Odile Mackett, and Sara Stevano’s book Feminist Political Economy: A Global Perspective. Each suggestion is explicated below.
Social care infrastructure: Investment and provisioning of affordable and accessible public care services like childcare and social care will create job opportunities for women who are already experienced in caregiving roles. This will further formalise traditionally unpaid work and provide women with paid employment opportunities. This will also reduce women’s unpaid work responsibilities.
Childcare and eldercare services can relieve women from their unpaid care responsibilities, enabling them to rejoin the workforce or pursue education or skill development. When women are freed from their full-time, unpaid caregiving responsibilities, they are more likely to seek formal employment, resulting in the increase of female labour force participation.
Women’s labour market access and opportunities: Introducing minimum wage laws that fairly compensate care workers and ensuring their inclusion in formal labour frameworks can play a crucial role. This will also create an environment where care work is recognised as skilled labour, giving workers more bargaining power and ensuring that their contributions to society and the economy are valued.
Further, the provision of pensions, health insurance, and maternity benefits to informal caregivers (domestic workers, childcare providers) would bring these workers into the formal sector, offering them more economic stability. Formalisation of care work also involves monitoring working conditions to prevent exploitation and abusive practices, ensuring that care workers are treated with dignity and respect.
Recognising and representing unpaid work in macroeconomic policies: India conducted a Time Use Survey in 2019, which was an important step towards understanding the burden of unpaid care work. By using data from such surveys, the value of unpaid care work can be estimated and these estimates can be incorporated into macroeconomic measures. This would help redefine the perception of care work from a domestic responsibility to a productive economic activity.
Moreover, policymakers may use this data to design gender-sensitive policies aimed at reducing women’s unpaid work burden. Such policies could give women time to engage in paid work or pursue education.
Challenging social and cultural norms: There is a need to destigmatise unpaid work, which will help in altering gender stereotypes and care work. To challenge these stereotypes, public campaigns, educational programmes, and media can play a role in promoting men’s active participation in caregiving. Government policies can also encourage paternity leave and parental leave policies that incentivise men to take time off to care for children, thereby normalising the idea of men as caregivers.
Policy revisions around care work are interdependent. While building care infrastructure can create job opportunities for women, it is important to ensure that these jobs do not remain underpaid and undervalued through the provision of social safety nets. With better social infrastructure and social security, these jobs can move beyond stereotypes. The role of the State is pivotal in making care work inclusive and fair.
Scholars from the Global North are increasingly talking about a “crisis of care”, as women from dominant communities enter the workforce, a “care gap” emerges. This gap is often filled by migrant women or women from marginalised communities, resulting in the formation of a “global care chain”.
The “global care chain” refers to a series of responsibilities passed from one woman to another across borders and socio-economic strata. As a result, women at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder are the most vulnerable and remain at the bottom of the chain.
How are care and monetised economics defined in economic literature?
Discuss ways to better integrate the value of unpaid and underpaid care work into the broader economic framework?
How can prioritising the care economy contribute to the long-term balance of growth and development in India?
What are the key components of the 5R framework provided by the International Labour Organisation for improving the efficiency, sustainability, and fairness of care work?
(Ritwika Patgiri is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Economics in South Asian University.)
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