UPSC Mains — Previous Year Question
Question
Distinguish between ‘care economy’ and ‘monetized economy’. How can care economy be brought into monetized economy through women empowerment?
Model Answer
While India’s national gross domestic product measures market-traded goods and commercial transactions, it largely overlooks the care economy—the vital unpaid caregiving and domestic labor that sustains the social fabric and daily workforce. ILO studies estimate that investing roughly 2% of GDP in comprehensive care infrastructure could generate millions of formal jobs, predominantly benefiting women.
Distinction: Care Economy vs. Monetized Economy
| Analytical Feature | The Care Economy | The Monetized Economy |
|---|---|---|
| Core Nature | Unpaid, non-market caregiving: childcare, elder care, cooking, cleaning, and emotional support. | Formal and informal production of goods and services exchanged for currency. |
| Primary Motivation | Kinship bonds, familial affection, social responsibility, and cultural expectations. | Financial profit, wage compensation, return on capital, and commercial enterprise. |
| GDP Accounting | Excluded from System of National Accounts (SNA) production boundaries and headline GDP. | Directly captured and aggregated in official Gross Value Added (GVA) metrics. |
| Gender Distribution | Disproportionately carried out by women (Time Use Surveys show Indian women spend 7x more time on unpaid domestic care than men). | Male-dominated workforce participation, with female labor force participation (FLFPR) remaining lower. |
How Care Economy Can Be Brought into the Monetized Economy Through Women Empowerment
- 1. Recognizing and Measuring Unpaid Care Work:
- Conduct periodic national Time Use Surveys (TUS) to calculate satellite national accounts, evaluating the economic value of domestic care labor.
- 2. Expanding State-Subsidized Childcare Infrastructure:
- Institutionalize universal, affordable community crèches (such as the Palna Scheme) and transform Anganwadi centers into full-day care hubs. Providing reliable institutional childcare frees mothers to enter formal paid employment.
- 3. Formalizing and Professionalizing the Care Workforce:
- Professionalize nursing, geriatric elder care, palliative care, and early childhood education through accredited certifications under the Healthcare Sector Skill Council, ensuring minimum wages, social security, and standard working hours.
- 4. Institutionalizing Direct Care-Support Welfare Transfers:
- Provide direct social cash transfers to mothers and caregivers (e.g., expanding Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana) to acknowledge domestic care work as an economic contribution.
- 5. Fostering Care Collectives via Women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs):
- Mobilize Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY-NRLM) women’s SHGs into institutional micro-enterprises providing community kitchens, commercial tiffin networks, and home-care services.
- 6. Enforcing Corporate Work-Life Balance Mandates:
- Enforce statutory paid paternity leave, on-site corporate crèche facilities under the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act 2017, and flexible telecommuting/hybrid options to encourage shared domestic duties.
Monetizing and supporting the care economy recognizes women’s unpaid labor, advancing gender equality under SDG 5 and driving inclusive economic growth.