Care work is the very foundation on which the urban economy operates. From intimate care to domestic work to child and elderly care services, the care we receive and give sustains our everyday lives. However, while care needs are significant – by 2050, 347 million elderly persons and 300 million children in India will need professionalised care services – most care demands are currently being met through women's unpaid labour. Of all women not in the labour force, 44.5% reported care work as the main barrier (Nikore Associates et.al., 2024; MoLE, 2023). The precariousness of care work persists amidst a growing demand for paid care work, which has fostered complex care chains involving domestic and global migration. In context of the new Mission for socio-economic upliftment of urban workers announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, it becomes critical to ask, how can urban policy frameworks support care work as a form of urban livelihood in India?

Consequences of the Gendered Division of Care Work

The social construction of care work as ‘naturally’ women’s responsibility results in women and girls in India spending an average of five hours daily on unpaid domestic services (IWWAGE, 2021), leaving them with lesser time and opportunity to participate in the labour market. Working women earn 35% less than their male counterparts, and their mobility and health are adversely impacted as they balance between work and care-giving.

When women start working, they delegate care work to other women, setting off domestic and global care chains. When a nurse from Kerala migrates to Germany, she takes on the care responsibilities of the German family, transferring her care responsibilities to her female relatives. Urban working women transfer their care responsibilities to migrant domestic workers who often rely on their rural households for the care of their own dependents. While participating in a training session titled, ‘Global Care Chains and Precarious Working Conditions’, organised by GIZ India in January 2025, the authors were sensitised to how invisibilisation and undervaluation are perpetuated as care work keeps getting transferred to women at the bottom of socio-economic hierarchies.

Paid care workers face precarity on various fronts: low pay, job insecurity, inconsistent earnings, long working hours, unsafe working conditions, lack of access to training and representation, and minimal social protection. Among care workers, women and other marginalised groups face compounded identity-based discrimination. The physical, emotional, and psychological needs of care workers often remain unmet, reducing overall productivity.

These issues notwithstanding, the formalisation of care economy is key to employment generation, especially for women. A recent report estimates that direct public investment equivalent to 2% of GDP in the care services sector can generate 11 million jobs, 70% of which will go to women (Nikore Associates et.al., 2024). However, unlocking these opportunities will require interventions that promote decent work. Some ways in which care work can be recognised, rewarded, and redistributed to create more equitable and inclusive cities are outlined below.

Urban Policy Interventions to Support the Care Economy

1. Making Care ‘Everybody’s Business’

   For urban poor women, many of whom are engaged in informal livelihoods, care facilities in close proximity are critical in facilitating their labour market participation. For example, Barcelona’s Vila Veïna and Bogota’s Care Blocks, co-locate care services and carers’ support services within walking distance from neighbourhoods. State and employer responsibilities towards providing affordable and accessible care services can be facilitated through various operational, financial, and knowledge partnerships. For example, the NGO Mobile Creches works with construction companies to institutionalise 'creches at all sites' by providing initial set-up, staff training, management and monitoring support. Another replicable model is the tax-exempt care voucher system, which employers in countries like the US, UK, Canada, provide to their employees to avail subsidised care services.

2. Recognising Care Skills:-

   There is a need to strengthen accreditation and skilling systems, especially for domestic work, child care, and geriatric care work, characterised by higher degrees of informality. This will require engaging with employers and training partners to develop market-driven, inclusive, and flexible training models. A good example in this regard is the Self Employed Women’s Association’s (SEWA)’s work, which builds collectives of domestic workers, provides professionalised training to them, and liaises with employers for their placement.

3. Legally Mandating Care for Care Workers

   Since individual households are not sufficiently recognised or regulated as places of work, a supportive regulatory framework for care workers is critical. Such a framework should recognise, identify and enumerate care workers and guarantee social security and entitlements to them irrespective of their status as formal or informal workers, ideally through tripartite bodies with government, employer, and worker representatives. Representative platforms where care workers can raise and resolve their grievances should be established. Further, the migrant status of the majority of care workers should be recognised and accounted for through steps such as shared databases, resource-sharing agreements, and joint monitoring and evaluation systems between the governments of sending and receiving regions. A good example in this regard is the Migrant Tracking System implemented by Maharashtra Government to ensure portability of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme benefits.

   In conclusion, the care economy, both paid and unpaid, forms the backbone of our urban economies, yet its contribution often remains undervalued and invisible. Systemic reforms in policy, along with private sector and civil society partnerships, will help address care deficits and elevate care work as a desirable profession. As India transitions demographically and economically, integrating care work into urban livelihood strategies is not just an economic imperative, but also a pathway towards sustainable and equitable urban futures.

Bibliography

1. IWWAGE. (2021). Working or not: What determines women’s labour force participation in India?
   https://iwwage.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IWWAGE-Working-Report-upd.pdf\
2. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Karmannaya Counsel, & Nikore Associates. (2024). Formulating a strategy for India’s care economy: Unlocking opportunities.
   https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2024/mar/doc202435319501.pdf
3. Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. (2023). Female labour utilization in India: Employment statistics in focus - April 2023. Directorate General of Employment.
   https://dge.gov.in/dge/sites/default/files/2023- 05/Female_Labour_Utilization_in_India_April_2023_final__1_-pages-1-2-merged__1_.pdf
4. iSocial. (n.d.). Vila Veïna: A new public community care system. iSocial. https://isocial.cat/en/vila-veina-a- new-public-community-care-system/
5. Lampoon Magazine. (2024). Bogotá's care blocks: Claudia López's gender gap initiative. Lampoon Magazine.https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2024/02/29/bogota-care-blocks-claudia-lopez-gender-gap- manzanas-del-cuidado-caregivers/
6. Mobile Creches. (n.d.). Field programme. Mobile Creches.https://www.mobilecreches.org/field-programme
7. Child Care Canada. (n.d.). Child care in Canada: A snapshot. Child Care Canada.https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/fs1.pdf
8. SEWA Delhi. (n.d.). Domestic workers advocacy campaigns. SEWA Delhi. https://sewadelhi.org/advocacy-campaigns/domestic-workers/
9. https://indianexpress.com/article/governance/maharashtra-app-maps-workers-migration-for-portability-of- icds-scheme-7868345/