In Recognition of Women's Work: Unpaid Care, Labour Market and the Indian State

How does India value women's work? This panel brought together researchers, economists, and policy analysts to examine what happens when the Indian state attempts to recognise, measure, and respond to the enormous contribution of women's unpaid care labour to household welfare and national economic output. Organised by The Research Wise on the occasion of International Women's Month, the event provided an intellectually rigorous space for engagement with some of the most important - and most underresearched - questions in Indian gender and development policy. The panel attracted approximately 300 participants from academia, civil society, government, and international development organisations. Panel themes: Measuring the Unmeasured (why India's national accounting persistently undercounts care work); Care and the Labour Market (how unequal care distribution shapes women's labour force participation, occupational choices, and earnings); The Indian State's Response (from maternity entitlements to childcare infrastructure to MGNREGS); COVID-19 and the Care Recession; and The Path Forward for a genuinely care-responsive policy framework in labour law, social protection, and national statistics.

This event has already taken place.