NEW DELHI: The
Economic Survey
calls for strategic reforms to create a robust
care economy
in India to not only address the expected rise in demand for such services but address the challenge of ‘
motherhood penalty
‘.
Childbearing and childcare is found to have a significant financial impact on women’s careers. ‘Motherhood penalty’ shows up as a drop in ‘
female labour force participation
rate’ during child-bearing years and resultant loss of income.
“The economic value of developing a
care sector
is two-fold – increasing female labour force participation rate and promoting a promising sector for output and job creation,” the survey said. According to the Indian Labour Organisation (ILO), the care sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors globally, and investments in care services sector are estimated to generate 475 million jobs globally by 2030.
In India, direct public investment equivalent to 2% of GDP has the potential to generate around 11 million jobs, nearly 70% of which will go to women.
According to the ILO, care work consists of activities involved in meeting the physical, psychological, and emotional needs of adults and children, old and young, frail and able-bodied.
“India’s care needs are slated to expand significantly in the next 25 years, as an ageing population follows demographic transition while the population of children stays relatively sizeable. Thus compared to 50.7 crore persons in 2022, the country would need to care for 64.7 crore persons in 2050,” the survey said.
The report asserted that the additional requirements for care would be further upscaled as more women participate in paid work with prevalence of nuclear families increasing.
In a section on social and economic empowerment of women, the survey calls for measures to enhance asset ownership among women and normalising female property rights. “For development to be led by women, it will also have to be ‘owned’ by them,” the report said.
On financial inclusion, it has pointed out that the PM Jan Dhan Yojana has facilitated the opening of 52.3 crore bank accounts, of which around 56% of account holders are women, as of May 2024. This is accompanied by a rise in average deposits by nearly four times, from Rs 1,065 in March 2015 to Rs 4,398 in May 2024.
