Abstract
Care work is organized differently in varied economies, though the broader contours may suggest some degree of uniformity. Understanding the social organization of care work and, the processes involved are important in evolving alternative strategies that are otherwise guided by the existing normative assumptions of care. Neetha Pillai addresses care work in social and labour policies, drawing attention to the possibilities of alternative care strategies, beyond the market, in the context of India.
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Notes
Open unemployment rate among women in urban areas was the highest −9 percent as per the latest available employment and unemployment data, that is, for 2004–2005.
The category includes all those who work for private households such as housemaid/servant, cook, gardener, gate-keeper/watchman, governess/babysitter etc.
A substantial proportion of the increase (around 50 percent) may have been due to more careful categorization and enumeration as is evident in the drastic decline in the number of workers included in ‘other service’ activities in the same period.
Legally, unionization has been restricted to an industry or occupation preventing the possibility of inter-occupation unionization. Further derecognition of secondary strikes or sympathetic strike or general political strike and specifying the necessity of monetary contribution on a regular basis for union membership contributed to a decline in worker solidarity over the years.
Domestic workers are not covered under the list of scheduled employment under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
Anganwadi workers and helpers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme and Asha workers (Accredited Socio Health Activist) under the National Health Mission. These programmes together account for roughly 2.3 million women ‘social workers’ in 2009.
Rural areas accounted for 72 percent of total employment in 2004–2005 based on current daily status.
Mobile crèche was started in 1969 and has been successful in persuading many employers in opening crèches and day care centres at construction sites and in the slums of the National Capital Region. Mobile Creches has reached out to 650,000 children, trained 6,000 childcare workers and run 600 day care centres as on May 2010. For details visit http://www.mobilecreches.org/about.htm.
Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is a trade union working among informal sector women workers, and is headquartered in Ahmedabad, with over 1.2 million members as on January 2010. Sangini is a cooperative, registered in Ahmedabad, of childcare workers, which provides care services to registered SEWA members.
Caste is an important aspect – domestic workers are largely from socially backward castes such as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. For details see, Palriwala and Neetha (2009b).
There have been some efforts in this direction. Apart from regional initiatives, the National Commission on Women's has drafted a bill, Domestic Workers (Registration, Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2008, which aims to regulate conditions of work of domestic workers.
References
Chandra, Navin (2009) ‘Labour Rights and the Working Poor’, Indian Journal of Labour Economics 52 (3): 471–488.
Neetha, N. (2008) ‘Women's Work in the Post Reform Period: An exploration of macro data’, Occasional Paper No. 52, CWDS: New Delhi.
Palriwala, Rajni, and Neetha, N. (2009a) ‘The Care Diamond: State social policy and the market’, unpublished report, The Political and Social Economy of Care, UNRISD: Geneva.
Palriwala, Rajni, and Neetha, N. (2009b) ‘Paid Care Workers in India – Domestic Workers and Anganwadi Workers’, unpublished report, The Political and Social Economy of Care, UNRISD: Geneva.
Razavi, Shahra (2009) ‘From Global Economic Crisis to the ‘Other Crisis’’, Development 52 (3): 323–328.
Acknowledgements
The insights and exposure gained from being part of the UNRISD research project on ‘The Political and Social Economy of Care’ have helped in organizing the issues discussed in this paper. Some of the arguments in the paper are drawn from the research papers prepared for the study, jointly with Rajini Palriwala.
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Draws attention to the possibilities of alternative care strategies beyond the market
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N, N. The Social Organization of Care Work in India: Challenges and alternative strategies. Development 53, 362–367 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2010.41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2010.41