India is at a critical juncture in its development journey. It emerged as the fifth-largest economy and celebrated its 75th independence anniversary in 2022; in 2023, it took over the G20 presidency. The realisation of gender equality is an important and integral part of the G20, which has been articulated in the country's vision of ‘women-led development'. India, therefore, is presented with a propitious opportunity to create a world of equality and equity where every woman lives with dignity and enjoys the opportunity to thrive.
Achieving gender equality has long been the goal of international and national development frameworks. While substantial progress has been made, for example, in reducing gender disparity in education, there is still a long way to go. In the world of work, gender gaps still exist in accessing not only employment but quality employment, career advancement, receiving pay, accessing social protection, having representation in leadership, management, and social dialogue, and enjoying a safe working environment. The gains in girls' education have not translated into proportionate progress in advancing gender equality in the world of work. The COVID-19 pandemic had devastating impacts on the world of work, especially for women globally, with young women being disproportionately affected by employment and wage losses. We are now at the halfway mark of the Sustainable Development Goals and need concerted efforts to accelerate progress on gender equality, build back better, and ensure we ‘leave no one behind'.
So, what do women-led development and gender equality look like?
To increase women's labour force participation, it is essential to make increased investments to create an enabling environment for them while continuing efforts to eliminate gender gaps in accessing education and skills development, including digital skills, finance, networks, and voice and representation.
First, increased public investment is required to expand policies, infrastructure, and services that can reduce the unpaid care burden on women and girls. Globally, women perform 76.2% of the total amount of unpaid care work (16 billion hours per day), 3.2 times more than men, according to the ILO's ‘Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work' report. In India, women spend 299 minutes a day on unpaid domestic services, while men spend 97 minutes, according to the 2019 Time Use Survey by the National Sample Survey Office. Globally, unpaid care work is the primary reason keeping women outside the labour force, and in 2018, 606 million women were unavailable for employment due to unpaid care work, compared to only 41 million men, according to the ILO's estimates. Unpaid care work is a challenge faced mostly by women in realising their full potential.
Therefore, for countries to see the full impacts of gender equality in the world of work stemming from reduced gender gaps in skills, education, and access to finance, among others, the challenge of unpaid care work needs to be mitigated through a multipronged approach. This includes investing in infrastructure and services to make quality care such as childcare, elderly care, care for people with disabilities and healthcare, affordable and accessible for all, expanding policies providing adequate paid care leave and promoting balanced sharing of work and family responsibilities, and promoting decent work for care workers such as healthcare workers, workers in education and social work, and domestic workers. By 2030, there will be 2.3 billion recipients of care work globally. Promoting decent work for care workers then becomes fundamental to the decent work agenda. Work in the care
economy, such as childcare work and domestic work, has traditionally been low-paid with no or inadequate access to social protection and is predominantly done by women. Addressing this injustice is an important part of the journey to realising gender equality.
There is a strong investment case for care policies. The ILO's estimates project that 280 million jobs will be generated from investing in care policy packages by 2030 in 82 countries, with 70% of the jobs going to women and 84% of the jobs being formal, which will also contribute to reducing gender pay gaps. Hence, investing in care will have multiple development benefits towards gender equality and sustainable development.
Additionally, technology is also rapidly transforming and advancing global economies, opening up new avenues of employment like gig and platform work and for life-long learning. Digital labour platforms can provide opportunities to women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other groups traditionally marginalised in the labour market. India has the youngest population in the world, which allows it to reap a demographic dividend by equipping them with the knowledge and skills to bolster the economy from a developing to a developed one. According to the ILO's Global Youth Employment Trends Report 2022, investment in universal broadband coverage will allow one-third of all jobs to go to young people by 2030, and young women will be among its primary beneficiaries. However, while these platforms provide flexibility in working conditions, they also exclude workers from enjoying the benefits of traditional workplaces, like paid leave, minimum wages, limited working hours, collective bargaining, and social protection. While we adapt to new forms of work and employment, we must ensure that the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work are enjoyed by all workers, as they are non-negotiable. Ensuring safety in cyberspace is also key.
Lastly, the elimination of discrimination—both direct and indirect discrimination—the promotion of equal pay, and the elimination of violence and harassment—particularly gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work—are vital for achieving gender equality globally. Continuing efforts are required to strengthen the legal framework, the implementation of laws, and actions at the workplace level. The ILO's Global Call to Action for a Human-Centred Recovery from the Covid-19 Crisis adopted in 2021 also acknowledges the need for these areas of action.
These action points can help develop a framework that will surely bring us all closer to seeing women-led development and making gender equality a reality.
Satoshi Sasaki is deputy director and OIC at International Labour Organization, Decent Work Technical Support Team for South Asia and Country Office for India, New Delhi
The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.
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