The informal care economy | Political Economy

#informal #care #economy #Political #Economy

Akistan has endorsed 36 International Labor Organization Conventions, including eight basic. The three important conventions that are directly related to the care economy are not bad. These are:

• C156 – Workers with family responsibilities
• C183 – Maternity protection
• C189 – decent work for domestic workers

Nevertheless, some principles of these conventions have found partial expression in federal and provincial laws. There are paid maternity and maternity holiday provisions and Punjab started domestic workers’ policy in 2015. Later, the formal laws were later approved at Punjab, Balochistan and the federal level. Sindh is in the final stages of legislating its domestic workers’ law.

In Pakistan, an unprecedented portion of unpaid care works inside women homes, expansion families and communities. They are mostly free and low cost. These women are silent partners in the national GDP. According to UN Women (2023):

• Female Spend 19.8 Percent of 24 hours on free care and household work.
• Male Spend 2.3 Percentage

This imbalance is not only strict but economically important, but nevertheless, national data and public policy are widely hidden.

Domestic care workers, many of whom provide important services to help children, elderly care and disability, work in highly uncertain and informal environments. Most of the backward social economic backgrounds are less or less semi -reading women. Their work, although demanding physically and emotionally, is indiscriminately and unsafe.

The field offers a clear picture of data care terms. Reports and case studies revealed permanent challenges in the following:

• Long -lasting work times without deployment. The duration of
• No contract or legal protection
• Lack of social protection, minimum wage or complaint recession
• Exposure to verbal, physical and sexual exploitation
• In case of some direct workers, a complete cut of personal limits

Despite the development of legislation for domestic care work (domestic workers), the implementation is weak due to the lack of inspection, registration system and implementation procedures.

The care economy is a multi -faceted problem that calls for integrated action. This silent and hidden sector of the economy connects multiple policy domains: labor, human rights, social protection, planning and local governance. Effective reforms call for mutual cooperation across:

• Line Department (labor, planning, social welfare, women’s development)
• Human Rights Commission and legal institutions
• Local governments investing in care infrastructure such as Children Care Centers and Elder Care Homes
• Women’s organizations at civil society, trade unions and lower levels
• Academia (for the protection of research and evidence)
• Development partners such as ILO and UN Women (for framework and technical support)

Pakistan lacks institutional mechanisms to measure care work. Time use surveys are neither standard nor institutionalized. Delaying the emerging indicator Labor Force survey and timely edition is very important for the data collection officials to fill the missing numbers from Pakistan’s care economy. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and the Provincial Bureau should be busy preparing gender -sensitive care indications within the national domestic survey.

There are dangerous differences in the policies of the care economy. ILO’s Global Care Policy Portal (2021) highlights major shortages in Pakistan’s care policy framework. They include:

Maternity holiday:

• Legally fixed in 12 weeks (except Sindh where it is 16 weeks)
• No clause for adopting mothers or self -employed women
• No guarantee of work return or protection from employment
• Concerned with weak dismissal
• No data about coverage for domestic workers

Maternity and Parental Holiday:

• Non -existent; No legal entitles, reservations or benefits
• Reinforces traditional gender principles

Children’s Care Holiday:

• Only available to mothers (like maternity holiday)
• There are no joint provisions of care for fathers or other careers

Elder Care and Emergency Holiday:

• There is no formal system for residential, community or home -based elderly care
• Emergency leave is present but does not exclude self -employed workers

Protect the workplace for pregnant and nursing women:

• No protective guidelines against hazardous work
• Breastfeeding is not a mandatory break or pre -birth checkup holiday
• No legal rights for job alternatives or breastfeeding facilities

The overall result is a clear care difference. Systemic failure to help lifetime careers. This offers gender equality and economic participation. Despite some good steps, Pakistan still lacks a compatible approach to connecting the number and offering a satisfactory state with the indication of the care economy. Current policy framework and legislative links are another challenge to include and ensure their safety.

To close the gender care gap, the key ILO Convention C183 (Maternity), C156 (Family Liaison) and C189 (Domestic Worker) must be verified. Convention is not just about compliance, it is about dignity, rights and the future of decent work. With job safety, wage protection, and participation, the pedestrian leave and parent leave is similar.

There is a need to spend social protection to include informal and self -employed workers, including domestic and adoption caregivers. Maternity protection needs to be strengthened by ensuring safe work environment, employment continuity and breastfeeding facilities.

It is very important to maintain national children’s care and elderly care environmental system through local funding measures, which is integrated into communities and workplaces by the local government.

Care work is a skilled work. Yet it is often low -paying, unsafe and excessively invisible.

Awareness is key, to make change. Raising awareness about the care economy should be combined with policy reforms. Key suggested steps include:

• Community campaigns headed by women’s groups and unions
• Advocate of fair wages and wages card for care workers
• Approval and training programs for professional care providers
• Parliamentary committees for reform of care policy
• Legal amendments to add care workers to social dialogue platforms
• Alliance to recognize and help without compensators

Pakistan’s care economy is very developed, which maintains gender inequality and excludes millions of women from the labor force. Solving this gap is not just a gender problem. This is an economic, social and development. With political will, comprehensive policy design and permanent investment, care can be recognized, valuable and secure as public. Care is not a charity. He is a laborer, deserves public investment and policy protection.

Author can be arrived at lailazharali@gmail.com