Gender, Unpaid Work and Care in India

Foreword by Devaki Jain

Introduction

Ellina Samantroy and Subhalakshmi Nandi

PART I: Conceptual and Methodological Evolution in Understanding Women’s Unpaid Work

1.     Framing the Discourse on Women’s Unpaid Work in India

Ratna M. Sudarshan

2.    Dimensions of Women's Unpaid Work in India: Significance of the 3Rs for Macroeconomic Policies

Sona Mitra

3.    Valuing Women’s Unpaid Work in India: Lessons from Time Use Surveys

Ellina Samantroy

PART II: Labour Market Trends, Informality and Women’s Unpaid Work in India 

4.    Unpacking Sectoral Trends in Female Employment in India

Dipa Sinha

5.    Women Informal Workers and The Right to ‘Care’: Implications of Women’s Care Responsibilities on their Employment Prospects

Sakshi Khurana

PART III: Emerging Dimensions in the Understanding of Women’s Unpaid Work

6.    Women’s Burden of Unpaid Care Work and the Power of Public Services

Diya Dutta

7.    Environmental Distress, Out-Migration and Changing Gender Roles: A Case Study of Rural Uttarakhand, India

Manoj Jatav, Sucharita Sen and Deepika Jajoria

8.    Work and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Tribal Rajasthan, India

Mubashira Zaidi

9.    Extricating the Perpetuation of Inter-Generational Vulnerability of Girl Children to Labour Exploitation and Rights Deprivation: Analysis of Policies, Strategies and Collective Orchestrated Action

Helen R. Sekar

Conclusion

Subhalakshmi Nandi

Biography

Ellina Samantroy is Fellow, Centre for Gender and Labour, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, India. 

Subhalakshmi Nandi is Senior Program Officer, Gender Equality, Policy and Advocacy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and formerly Director, Policy at ICRW Asia.

‘This is a powerful book bringing together the voices of researchers, policy advocates and practitioners, together to draw out the dynamics of women’s unpaid-paid work continuum in India. The book’s main takeaways, albeit not new, are critical in order to advance our understanding of how patterns of women’s work can be understood and measured through an intersectional lens (e.g., single women, married women, girls, migrant women, tribal women, etc.). 

A key strength of this book is its showcasing of micro-examples of how gender norms around care and mobility and women’s access to resources, affect women’s work and employment. It provides important empirical evidence for how public services and infrastructure can be enablers of women’s paid, unpaid and care work. This is one of the most interesting books on this subject coming out of the Indian context, that will help readers to not only understand the context of women’s work in India, but also think proactively and differently about solutions towards creating better quality ‘work’ for women – both paid and unpaid.’ 

Deepta Chopra, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, UK

 

‘For India, labor force statistics document a sharp decline in already low labour force participation rates for Indian women. On the other hand, however, anyone familiar with the day-to-day lives of Indian women cannot fail to remark upon the whirlwind of activities they engage in, leaving little time for leisure. So how do we reconcile these two divergent observations? With chapters from outstanding researchers, this book brings together diverse perspectives to provide a holistic picture of women’s work in both market and non-market activities. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the institutional context of women’s work in India and its implications for public policy.’ 

Sonalde Desai, Professor, University of Maryland, USA