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IWWAGE-Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality

‘Nayi Chetna – Pahal Badlav Ki’ campaign Marks its Second Year in the battle against Gender-Based Violence

‘Nayi Chetna – Pahal Badlav Ki’ campaign Marks its Second Year in the battle against Gender-Based Violence

November 25th, 2023 marked the launch of the year two of Nayi Chetna, Pahal Badlaav ki. Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality is proud to partner with esteemed Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).

Minister of State for Rural Development and Steel, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste and Minister of State for Rural Development and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti inaugurated the campaign in New Delhi. Secretary Rural Development, Shri Shailesh Kumar Singh, Addl. Secretary Rural Livelihoods, Shri Charanjit Singh and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Dr. Shamika Ravi, dignitaries and representatives from the State Livelihoods Mission, the banking community, development partners and CSOs, SHG members from across the country were also present in the occasion.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) under the aegis of the Ministry of Rural Development announced the commencement of the second year of its flagship annual campaign, Nayi Chetna- Pahal Badlaav Ki, dedicated to address gender issues and eliminating gender-based violence. The launch coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The campaign aims to address pressing issues like normalization of violence, reluctance to speak up, lack of awareness of support mechanisms, and the absence of perceived safe spaces.

 

Violence against women and girls continue to be one of the biggest deterrents to achieving well-being, self-growth and a life of dignity. Physical or psychological violence is a gross violation of basic human rights and impedes women and girls achieving their full potential and living a life of their choice. Gender-based violence is a global pandemic that affects 1 in every 3 women in their lifetime. Evidence reveals that women are often unable to identity violence meted out to them because of normalization of discrimination and violence. Even if they do identify violence, they are unable to share or raise their voice against it to avoid naming and shaming and they continue to suffer in silence.  Most women, by and large, are unaware of redressal mechanisms, service providers and lack legal awareness.

 

DAY-NRLM has been at the forefront of gender empowerment since 2016 and recognizes this social evil as a major hindrance towards achieving individual and social development and hence aims to take necessary actions for eliminating Gender Based Violence. As part of its ongoing effort of mobilizing and addressing issues of marginalized communities and women, DAY-NRLM emphasises on the need for creating institutional mechanisms of responding to issues of violence along with integration of gender in all verticals for a larger perspective shift. Towards this, DAY-NRLM initiated the Nayi Chetna – Pahal Badlaav Ki campaign, which garnered immense success in its first year, mobilizing 3.5 crore people nationwide.

 

The campaign engages a wide array of stakeholders, including State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs), community institutions, Panchayati Raj Institutions, members of the community, DAY-NRLM verticals, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and relevant line Ministries and Departments.

The campaign has been launched for a period of one month with convergence with 13 Ministries/Departments. The campaign will undertake awareness building activities at community levels for sensitisation of all sections of the community. This would include rangoli making, pledge for elimination of gender-based violence, meetings at gram sabha level, essay and drawing competition, etc. In addition, special efforts will be made sensitise panchayat level functionaries on laws pertaining to gender-based violence and creation of safe spaces of women.  During the period of campaign, meetings of gender forums will be organised at block level and district level, sensitisation of police station personnels and other functionaries like health workers, schools, etc.

The campaign has been rightly given taglines of ‘Sahenge nahin kahenge’ and ‘Chuppi Todenge’.

Nayi Chetna

Launch of annual campaign ‘Nayi Chetna’ with the Ministry of Rural Development

A step against gender based discrimination

Gender-based discrimination, often seen in the form of violence against women, girls and gender-diverse individuals, continues to be one of the biggest deterrents to achieving self-growth, well-being and a life of dignity. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 data reveals that 30% of women between the age of 18 and 49 have experienced violence (physical, sexual, or emotional) since 15 years of age. It also reveals that as many as 77% women never sought help from anyone about the violence inflicted on them.  Figures from the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘Crime in India 2021’ report show that India registered 31,677 cases of rape in 2021 – an average 86 daily – while nearly 49 cases of crime against women were lodged every single hour. With a global rate of 1 in 3 women being a victim of violence, and given its physiological and psychological impacts, this human rights violation deters individuals from achieving their full potential and living a life of their choice. Individuals from socially marginalized groups are more acutely affected as gender-based violence is an added layer of vulnerability. 

IWWAGE in partnership with Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), UNICEF and Roshni recognize this social evil as a hindrance towards achieving individual and social development and aims to take necessary actions advance the rights of women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals. Strategic efforts have been made towards gender-mainstreaming by integrating gender approaches into its policies and programming to address gender inequality. These include building capacities of rural community-based institutions to identify and take action against issues of gender-based discrimination and setting up institutional mechanisms to make this process sustainable. The staff on ground and in the field were also given training and sensitization to integrate gender approaches into operations to create an enabling environment for multi-sectoral gender-responsive and transformative interventions in rural communities.

To add momentum and build on these ongoing efforts against gender-based discrimination, an annual national-level Gender Campaign against Gender-based discrimination, ‘Nayi Chetna’ was initiated. This month-long campaign was flagged off on the 25th of November marking the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls, ending on the 23rd of December. The campaign was graced and launched by Hon’ble Sh. Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of India and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India, along with other senior officials from MoRD. IWWAGE also showcased an animated movie called ‘Kamli Ki Kahaani’ translating as ‘The story of Kamli’, a case study-based story following the lead ‘Kamli’, a victim of domestic violence. Through the medium of the video our aim was to educate the audience on various forms of violence and on redressal mechanisms provided by the government for anyone who may be a victim of violence. 

 

The goal of the campaign is to advance the agency and rights of women and gender diverse individuals, by addressing structural barriers for dignified living with no fear and discrimination and violence based on their gender and intersectional identities. This marks the first campaign as the campaign will be observed annually for the next five years, with a focus on specific themes responding to gender equity each year. Importantly, this is envisioned in the spirit of a ‘Jan Andolan’ or People’s movement with follow-up actions planned for the rest of the year beyond the month-long campaign. It will thus gradually work towards deepening an intersectional approach to address multiple vulnerabilities, enhanced convergence and deepening the understanding of gender and generating relevant and ownership for multisectoral action. 

The campaign ran in all 34 states and union territories of India. This campaign was implemented by all states in collaboration with CSO partners, and actively executed by all levels including the State, District, Block engaging the Community Institutions along with the extended community. It also marked the inauguration of 160 Gender Resource Centres (GRCs) in 13 states. GRCs are intended to act as a catalyst to support women through social, legal & economic empowerment in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace. There are 1,251 gender resource centres set up across the country from where women facing gender violence can seek help. The Campaign also brought together all line departments and stakeholders to create a concerted effort in acknowledging, identifying, and addressing issues of violence. There was an array of activities which were conducted during the campaign, some of which were night walk, rallies, street plays, wall paintings, hosting of legal and gender camps and women leadership workshops. 

 

Watch the animated video here

 

Strengthening Capacities of Rural women through DAY-NRLM institutional Framework

Achieving gender equality is paramount for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and therefore also half of its potential. But gender inequality persists everywhere, stagnating social and economic progress. In the context of India, out of the 135-crore population, 65.13 percent live in rural India and women constitute 48 percent of total rural population. These rural women who are majorly a part of unpaid work have no access to sustainable income or paid economic activities in their lives. This blog looks at some of the initiatives undertaken by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) aimed at empowering women. 

Launched by the Ministry of Rural Development, Swarna Gramin Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) was introduced to provide self-employment to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) households through the formation of SHGs (Self Help Groups) to bring them out of poverty during 1999 to 2011. The programme aimed to ensure that at least one woman member from each rural poor household is brought into women SHGs and their federations within a definite time frame. Prof. R. Radhakrishna (2009) Committee reviewed the performance of SGSY and suggested changes in the design from a ‘top-down poverty alleviation’ approach to a ‘community-managed livelihood’ approach. Based on the Committee’s recommendation, SGSY was restructured into Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) by the government to provide a sharper and greater focus as well as momentum for poverty elimination. DAY-NRLM was started with the mission “To reduce poverty by enabling the poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots institutions for the poor.” 

Rural women face structural barriers in accessing their right to livelihoods, resources, and social protection, which are important factors in attaining empowerment. Realising the need of the hour, in 2016, gender mainstreaming was introduced within the NRLM program, and it was restructured as Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM). The approach of mainstreaming was to focus on shaping programs and policies in all verticals with a gender lens, for example- financial inclusion of women can lead to promotion of ownership of bank accounts, promotion of kitchen gardens can improve the health status of women and children, and methods for strengthening independent economic identity of women. The program also believes that mainstreaming of gender within its framework and systems is important to achieve sustainable economic, social, and political empowerment. In addition to gender mainstreaming, the focus was also on the inclusion of the most vulnerable communities- devadasis, single/widowed/divorced women, HIV+, transgender persons, elderly women, survivors of violence and trafficking.

For strengthening the approach of gender mainstreaming in all the verticals, DAY-NRLM introduced another important strategy- setting up of institutional mechanisms at different levels. The focus of setting up of these mechanisms was to establish a demand-supply relationship with other public entities like the Gram Panchayat/Village Council (specific to tribal areas), Gram Sabhas, Anganwadi Centres, Public Health Centres, Public Distribution System, banks, schools, etc and convergence with these line departments. To achieve this, a well-planned gender architecture has been placed at the community level like Gender Point Persons (GPPs), Gender Forums and Social Action Committee (SAC) at village level, Cluster Level Federation (CLF), Gender Justice Centre (GJC) and Gender Resource Centre (GRC) at block level. These institutions have been formed so that SHG members can approach them in need. The Gender Forum and the VO-SAC together prepare a Gender Action Plan to resolve critical gender issues in the village. The VO-SACs and Gender Forums also monitor progress on actions and report on them to the Cluster Level Federation (CLF), which aggregates agendas for all Village Organisations (VOs) under them. Through these collective actions, they are playing a pivotal role in uplifting women’s condition and position in society by identifying, acknowledging, and addressing issues of discrimination. 

The program has also given a platform for the capacity building for sustainability of these women federations through experienced gender experts called the National Resource Person (NRP). The NRPs train community resource persons (CRPs) at block level and help them to make Gender Operational Strategy based on the issues they are facing in their respective blocks and villages. Further, these CRPs train VOs and GPPs on gender concepts. Since the inception of gender mainstreaming in the program and as a result of these trainings, an improvement in indicators related to women empowerment has been noticed, which includes- sex ratio, participation in household decisions, having an account in the bank, having land in her name alone or jointly etc. In continuation to this, women’s autonomy and participation in grass root governance have also been seen in recent years. They have recognised their participation in Aam Sabha and Gram Sabha as well as in panchayat elections, which have been a huge milestone for this program as not only at socio-economic level, but women are heading towards political empowerment also.

Besides taking up issues related to gender discrimination, the institutional mechanisms of the program have proved its efficacy by addressing social evils. For example, the states of Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh through the NRETP (National Rural Economic Transformation Project) under DAY-NRLM have successfully taken up the issue of Anti Human Trafficking and worked towards ending it with the help of community institutions. Witch hunting, which is an old social scourge practised mainly in rural India is one of the most challenging issues in states like Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. To curb this practice, DAY-NRLM and JSLPS (Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society) has introduced Garima Project in 2020 and an institution called Garima Kendra has been established at CLF level, which aims to eradicate this practice. Another important social issue is Gender Based Violence. DAY-NRLM through its programs has been capacitating the women federations on how to deal with GBV cases with sensitivity and approach the concerned line departments for help. For this, a new federation called Gender Resource Centre (GRC) has been formed in 15 states at block and Gram Panchayat levels which would be taking issues mainly on GBV cases. In case of child marriage, DAY-NRLM has been training women federations through NRPs on how to prevent it.

DAY-NRLM is an ongoing program which aims to mobilize poor households and address gender related issues along with State Mission Units (SMUs), women’s institutions, and line ministries. It also believes in engaging men and boys as their involvement is crucial to achieving gender equality. The Mission seeks to reach out to around 10 crore rural poor households in a phased manner by 2023 and impact their livelihoods significantly. There are many stories of hope and resilience, where DAY-NRLM institutions have given voice and support to these rural women empowering them to realize their true potential.

This blog is authored by Mrs. Ankita Sharma, Senior Research Associate at IWWAGE. 

Aneek Chowdhury
Aneek Chowdhury

Research Associate

Aneek Chowdhury is a Research Associate at IWWAGE. He has completed his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Heramba Chandra College (City College South), University of Calcutta, and a master’s degree in Economics from Ambedkar University Delhi,

His current focus revolves around a comprehensive study on Capturing Women’s Unpaid Work. Aneek’s academic journey has nurtured a keen interest in areas such as game theory, social choice, and political economy,

G20 workshop

G20 Thematic Workshop on Nari Shakti: Towards Women-Led Development organised by NITI Aayog and IWWAGE

A workshop on the theme of Nari Shakti: Towards Women-led Development, emanating from the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration 2023 (NDLD 2023), was held on 8 November 2023 at New Delhi.  The workshop was organized by NITI Aayog in collaboration with Institute of What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE). This workshop was part of the series of thematic workshops steered and anchored by the NITI Aayog towards action items in the NDLD 2023.

The workshop focused on specific themes for enhancing the role of women in economy through economic and social empowerment. Discussions were held of topics of strengthening women’s collectives like Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs); bridging gender skills gap and promoting women entrepreneurs; and strengthening legal safeguards for women’s empowerment.

 

The Workshop commenced with inaugural remarks by Dr. V.K Paul, Member NITI Aayog, where he highlighted that women-led development has been emphasized by our Hon’ble Prime Minister through various initiatives and programmes over the last few years. However, he underscored the challenge of low female labour force participation and stressed upon leveraging their social capital by providing them an enabling ecosystem. He called to synergize pathways of G20 priorities and national agendas, and create actionable strategies to achieve the same.

Dr. Preetam B Yashvant, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, emphasized of the paradigm shift where women are no longer recipients but active participants in the development discourse. He further highlighted that G20 was truly a Peoples’ Presidency where women-led development was showcased through ‘Jan Bhagdari’ activities.

Dr Sandhya Purecha, Chair W20 India, highlighted that Nari Shakti encapsulates the strength that women embody and women-led development is a moral obligation necessary for equitable society.

The theme on Women in the Economy: Enhancing Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment delved into increasing women’s labour force participation to achieve women-led development. Issues like recognizing gender disparity in domestic and care work; and increasing investment in this sector to enable more women to participate meaningfully in the workforce; exploring the potential of gig economy; bridging gender skill gaps and social security for women; enhancing policies to create gender inclusive and supportive workplaces; and role of private sector to enhance and retain female workforce, were discussed.

The theme on Women’s Collectives: Strengthening SHGs, Women led FPOs and Rural Women’s Leadership Abilities focused on sharing the best practices in the women’s collectives’ space and strategies to scale them pan-India. The segment engaged in developing strategies to enable these women’s collectives reach the next stage of economic empowerment through formation of large producer enterprises or collectives and fostering leadership abilities among rural women.

The theme on Women and the Future of Work: Bridging Digital and Skilling Gaps for Access to Jobs and Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship concentrated on enhancing women’s access to digital skills and infrastructure, prioritizing quality and safety, to ensure a secure and inclusive digital literacy experience, fostering greater participation in the digital ecosystem. It also focused on incentivizing employers to promote women’s participation in non-traditional sectors by addressing structural issues that shape gender roles, thereby encouraging women’s entrepreneurship and diversification of career aspirations.

In the segment of Legal Safeguards for the Empowerment of Women, discussions focused on creating an enabling ecosystem by prioritizing women’s safety through improved public infrastructure, strengthening the implementation of gender-friendly laws by effective monitoring, evaluation and placing accountability system, and developing gender-disaggregated data for more evidence-based policy for women-led development.

This workshop provided a platform for experts, academics, experts, and civil society and think tank representatives working on gender empowerment to collaborate and design a roadmap for comprehensive gender equality and empowerment.

 

 

GRC workshop

The Ministry of Rural Development and IWWAGE jointly organized a two-day
Consultative Workshop on Gender Resource Centre

The Ministry of Rural Development and IWWAGE jointly organized a two-day Consultative Workshop on Gender Resource Centre in New Delhi on 27th and 28th July 2023. In his keynote address, Shri Charanjit Singh Additional Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development mentioned that since 2016, DAY NRLM has targeted intervention for mainstreaming gender within the program with the goal to strengthen the voice, choice and agency of women. To respond to the issues of gender specific entitlements and rights, a need was felt for establishing a structure like Gender Resource Centre to find resolution for a varied range of complex cases that demand inter linkages with other departments.

Setting the context for the workshop, Smt. Smriti Sharan, Joint Secretary, shared that the DAY-NRLM has initiated a silent revolution in the country and that its transformative approach is premised on the principles of creating women led and women owned institutions. She shared the two basic principles of the DAY-NRLM program are social empowerment and economic empowerment of the rural poor women. Joint Secretary further stated that the establishment of GRC has been a landmark achievement for the program reaffirming DAY-NRLMs commitment to the mandate of women empowerment. Ms. Sharon Buteau, Executive Director of LEAD at Krea University underscored the importance of evidence generation in identifying key elements for interventions.

 

 

A total of 75 participants from 15 states along with CSO partners and gender experts participated in the workshop. The deliberations in the workshop highlighted the major components for strengthening Gender Resource Centre through a participatory group work. The enriching experiences from the participating State viz. Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Nagaland, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Tripura re-emphasizes the efforts that are required for strengthening the Gender Resource Centre in the country.

 

The closing remarks by Joint Secretary, Smt Smriti Sharan, laid out that the discussions have helped us reflect on the present scope of the GRC and ambit of work that lay in front of us. She also added that if GRCs are envisioned as the apex body of the community institutions at the Block level, then its role should also be of higher order. She also laid emphasis on the fact that it is much larger than just addressing cases- it is about combatting gender inequality through a holistic approach.

 

Fourth Gender Samvaad

Fourth Gender Samvaad was co-organized by Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission ((DAY-NRLM) and Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) –September 22, 2023

The fourth Gender Samvaad was co-organized by Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Developmen and Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) on September 22nd 2023. The virtual event brought together over 8000 participants, including senior officials MoRD, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of Bihar and state government officials, practitioners, gender experts, academia, civil society actors, and members of self-help groups.
Gender Samvaad, is a unique, joint attempt between DAY-NRLM and IWWAGE to establish a shared platform to generate awareness on DAY-NRLM’s gender interventions across the country, with a focus on hearing voices from the states and of SHG members.
In his keynote address, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Shri Charanjit Singh expressed concerns over the statistics on gender based violence and emphasised on the role that community based institutions can play in addressing this issue. He also stressed on inter-ministerial convergence to address Gender Based Violence, especially with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry of Education for awareness generation and sensitisation.

Joint Secretary, DAY-NRLM, Smt. Smriti Sharan highlighted the extensive efforts undertaken by DAY-NRLM in empowering women and creating model institutions to address women’s issues in rural areas particularly through the platform of Gender Resource Centre.
Community resource persons (CRP) from various states including Jharkhand, Kerala and Odisha were invited to share their experience of institutional strategies adopted to address gender based violence. Smt Rajani Dandasena from Odisha shared the experience of the functioning of the Prerna Kendra (Gender Resource centres) at Gram Panchayat level. The Prerna Kendras have established strong linkages with other departments through Gender Forum and have been able to address cases of Violence. The Gender Campaign launched in November 2022 has also led to widespread awareness on GBV and demanding public action through the institutions of the women. Women shared experiences of addressing issues like witch hunting, drug abuse, sexual violence, etc.
Smt. Mahua Roy Chaudhary from Jeevika, Government of Bihar highlighted the importance of gender training, learning pedagogies and use of IEC materials leading to creation of gender responsive institutions particularly Didi Adhikar kendras for addressing violence that is deep rooted in patriarchy and social norms. She also emphasized the political empowerment of women as ward members and mukhiyas in the state. She emphasized the importance of sustainability of these institutions in continuing delivering women’ s empowerment.

A panel discussion followed which included Joint Secretary from Ministry of Women and Child Development, Gender Expert and Women’s rights lawyer to emphasise the importance of  SRLM and system related opportunities like legal  remedies including fast track courts, horizontal and vertical gender training across different stakeholders and  inter-ministerial convergence adopting multi-pronged strategies to address GBV.   The panel discussed innovative financing for sustainability, safe spaces for women like Shakti Sadan and short stay homes, strengthening data driven governance and economic agency of women. The conversation laid out the scope of convergence between Naari Adalats under Mission Shakti with Gender Resource Centres under DAY-NRLM.  The Samvaad 2023 ended with the need to come together to address the core issues of women through focus on preventive measures, convergence and innovative and local approaches of problem solving.

IAWS-IWWAGE_Panel on Care Workers

Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) and Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS) panel on Strengthening the Voices of Care Workers in India

 

 

On 7th September, 2023, Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) collaborated with the prestigious Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS) as a part of their 17th National Conference held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (7th – 10th September 2023). The crucial panel discussion was held on one of the emerging issues of women workers in the insidious and rarely recognised sector of the economy – the care sector. The panel aimed to discuss mechanisms to strengthen the voices of such workers and aims at contributing to policies for their welfare.

The session was chaired and moderated by Ritu Dewan (Vice President, Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE)). The panel was introduced by Bidisha Mondal (Research Fellow, IWWAGE-LEAD at Krea University), where the panellists were Dipa Sinha (Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi), Sonia George (General Secretary, Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Kerala), Kiran Moghe (Member, All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA)) and AR Sindhu (General Secretary, All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH)). The concluding remarks were given by Ishita Mukhopadhyay (President, IAWS).

The discussion centred on the growing significance of care work and care workers, particularly in rural India, where they form the largest group of frontline workers employed by the State. With a diverse range of care workers in the country, spanning from unpaid to underpaid, working for the public and private sectors, households, or even within their own families, the panellists highlighted the pressing challenges these workers still face today. Women, particularly those serving as frontline workers such as Aanganwadi workers, ASHA workers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), mid-day meal workers etc., play a vital role in providing essential services to rural communities. Despite their substantial contributions to various human development outcomes and being responsible for the generation of 25-30% of India’s GDP (sic), the State does not officially recognize them as ’employees’; instead, they are often referred to as ‘scheme’, ‘voluntary’, or ‘honorary’ workers. They dedicate approximately 4 to 6 hours a day to their responsibilities, leaving them with little time to pursue other forms of employment. This lack of recognition is compounded by meagre compensation, which falls below the minimum wage and underscores the undervaluing of their work. In the country, only 14 states have officially established minimum wage rates for domestic and care workers, and even these are significantly below what is considered adequate. Unfortunately, in practice, it is found that the wages that workers receive are even lower than these officially notified rates. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that this issue extends beyond the rights of care workers. It also encompasses the rights of those receiving care – who have a right to receive high-quality, respectful, and dignified care. Overworked and underappreciated care workers may not be able to offer the level of attention, compassion, and expertise required. This work is not only valuable, but often requires a high level of skill – including empathy, communication, problem-solving, and often medical or technical expertise depending on the context. It requires emotional labor, as well as physical and intellectual effort. Failing to recognize this skill can lead to a lack of job satisfaction and motivation to work, which ultimately impacts the quality of care. Therefore, this work must not only be recognized but also compensated appropriately.

These honorary survival wages are provided without the benefit of any accompanying social security policies. Despite being the cornerstone of the rural economy, care workers are not even entitled to the care they themselves provide. In essence, the quality of care provided by care workers is then directly impacted by the conditions in which they operate. The highlighted challenges are not solely about their wages, but also about the overall working environment — including access to essential facilities like toilets during their shifts, and the implementation of social security measures. Additionally, provisions for maternity entitlements for the care workers who provide such benefits themselves are crucial. Without these fundamental rights and support systems, the standard of care delivered may not meet its full potential. 

 

In the urban landscape, domestic workers entrusted with the care and upkeep of households and their occupants are also facing a profound transformation in their paradigm of employment. This shift is underscored by several significant trends. Firstly, there is a notable surge in mechanization, altering the traditional landscape of household tasks. Concurrently, a rise in unemployment among employers of care workers is observed, marking a consequential shift in the employment dynamic. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this evolution, ushering in substantial lifestyle changes. These shifts encompassed a notable shift in habits and attitudes, and have also unveiled persistent discriminatory practices that continue to plague this workforce. Additionally, the outsourcing trend of the emergence of gig economy workers through apps has not only altered the employment structure but has also introduced new dynamics to the sector, emphasizing the need for adaptability and resiliency within this workforce.

However, one noteworthy achievement highlighted during the discussion was the expansion of schemes offering opportunities for workers, particularly women, to form unions, even if they are not in formal employment. Over the past decade, there has been a remarkable surge in union activities nationwide, leading to numerous successful endeavours in the fight for fundamental labour rights.

As the global conversation shifts from centring on care workers to prioritizing support for individuals in need of care, the struggles faced by care workers are often marginalized or overlooked. The panel identified this change in the narrative to highlight the importance of re-evaluating the recognition and support provided to care workers. The panel emphasized the importance of discussing welfare measures when considering wages and time dedicated to care work within the framework of social protection. The transition from a welfare-centric approach to one centered around establishing minimum wages should be a pivotal focus for domestic and care workers, and the subsequent policy recommendations. One pertinent question to address is whether there is adequate representation of domestic and care workers on these minimum wage committees. This aspect bears significant weight in ensuring fair and just compensation for the invaluable contributions of these workers.

The panel emphasised the efforts that must be made to recognize the home as a legitimate workplace, especially in contexts where care work is predominantly carried out. They pointed out the current oversight in acknowledging domestic settings as official work environments and stressed that this recognition requires active engagement with pertinent stakeholders, especially labour ministry and departments, to highlight the significance of this matter. They also emphasized the importance of collaborating with statistical agencies to establish robust mechanisms for integrating care work into official labour statistics. This would involve creating specific categories or classifications customized to accurately depict the contributions of care workers. They suggested the necessity for a proactive approach in initiating productive dialogues with stakeholders, ultimately leading to the establishment of comprehensive guidelines and protocols for data collection and reporting specifically tailored to care work. The panel concluded that by diligently pursuing these actionable points, significant progress can be achieved in rectifying the current oversight and ensuring that the invaluable contributions of care workers receive the recognition and appreciation they rightfully deserve.

 

An extensive question-and-answer session ensued after the panel discussion. Where the discussion brought various crucial points to the fore, concerning: old age care, instances of sexual harassment faced by domestic workers within households, the impact of invasive technologies on care workers, as well as instances of discrimination experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. These discussions provided an invaluable opportunity for further discourse and action on these pressing issues.

This note has been prepared by Prakriti Sharma, Senior Research Associate, IWWAGE-LEAD at Krea University.