The Invisible Burden: How Gendered and Class Norms Exploit Unpaid Care Work in India

Women being 48.41% of the population in India, according to the World Bank in 2023 and yet being the most marginalised in terms of the economic prospect of existence, calls for the acknowledgment of ‘unpaid care labour’. ‘Unpaid care labour’ or ‘Gratuitous worker’ is often used to describe a situation where the women are deemed into a patriarchal layout of the society which is functioning through the perception of “benevolence” in terms of their relationship with the people to whom the care is provided to. The onset of such expectations is patriarchal in its nature to begin with. Therefore it is inevitable to discuss a theme that requires attention to great detail which would encompass the historical schooling of women by accommodating into the traditional set of rules perpetuated by patriarchy to further the idea of ‘Unpaid Care Labour’ as a set of duties.

As we talk about the ‘Unpaid Care Labour’ we cannot cease to ignore the idea of alienation of labour from the final product reflects the gap in the capitalist system which thrives into the greater oppression and alienation of the labour from their own created product. Here, the alienation of labour from the final product is referred to women and their gendered division in the society as a mother, daughter, wife, daughter in law etc. Referring from my own experience, birthdays or any family gatherings have always scared and scarred me as it always felt like an event that was subjected to greater scrutiny and labour over my mother for the food that she prepared for us. The alienation of her own created meals from her on the outlook to show deeper thrust of love and care to my father or any other patriarch of the family while she having the leftovers speaks volumes on the normalisation of unpaid care labour.

Paid Yet Unrecognised - The Double Burden of Being a ‘Tai’

The further description of normalisation of Care Labour can be given through the example of ‘Tai’ – an informal term used for house helps meaning ‘sister’ or ‘didi’, who works as a househelp or cook and is deprived from her own created meals speaks for another instance of alienation from their own labour. The higher chances of suffering from anaemia, iron deficiency and other essential mineral deficiencies while providing and fulfilling to others, speaks for their alienation from a stable diet as of the class differences. Backing my following assertions through data, The National Family Health Survey (2019-2021) reports 57% of Women suffering from Anaemia in the age group of 15-49. For an instance taking from a hypothetical situation where a corporate guy who lives in Delhi and is into the much adamant choices with their healthy food recipes to keep themselves fit through the ‘gymming’ culture while on the contrary the ‘Tai’ who cooks for him is alien to the whole platter of food she prepares for him. It can be leisure for one while a gendered expectation for another. This very statement presents the unequal power dynamics in the patriarchal society and the essential need for ‘social justice’. The class and caste reflection through the ingredients on our plate and the ghettoisation through it even worsens the social location and subjugation of the women

The Invisibilization of Women in the Informal Sector

Women in India who are substantially paid for their labour occupy 81.8% of the Informal Sector, according to the International Labour Organization. This compels to frame an outlook that would seem to be part of the paid labour and its distinction from ‘care labour’ but it is not necessarily the case. This work is often ‘invisibilized’ in terms of the association of women in meager jobs. This invisiblization is systematic and gendered in nature needless to say. Women involved as unpaid labourers often work in times of absence of their husband from their own workplace. The invisible work in terms of the ‘care labour’ on behalf of the husband and to be present in his work place gives us an insight of women’s position through the lens of patriarchy.

Any interpersonal relationship or platonic relationship in the picture would expect women to do care labour even on the field due to the attribute for her being a woman. This subset can be easily associated with the idea as to how women looked according to their inherent character of being a woman. The ‘nurturer’ as derived out of these patriarchs of an institution are embedded not only with patriarchal ethos but also stoops women down  only as a ‘giver’ because of the capability of motherhood. Stooping down to only the tenet of reproduction, child rearing and being a nurturer is highly sexist in nature.  Being altruistic in nature and giving up on their own nutrition and health to only be a subject of violence by the patriarchs, to uphold the code of conduct written by them is ‘dystopian’ to say the least.

Gendered Land Rights and Unpaid Women Labour

While working not as much as the male counterpart but even more than them and still lacking the bare basic right to even claim any share on the land, crops produce and even wage amidst toiling the burden of oppression brings us to the question of discrimination that stems through the land and the laws surmounting it that squeals down to being highly discriminatory through the judgments.

Contextualizing this with the long history of gendered expectation cum exploitation women labourers subjected into in the Indian agrarian sector, their rights to be entitled with land to their name have been snatched away within the patriarchal set up. “I am also a Farmer and Yes, I am a Farmer” are some of the slogans used by women as a claim of their basic rights especially in the suburbs of India. This particularly shows the gendered juxtaposition of social status embedded in the patriarchal ethos, which furthers the idea of oppression and misery by channelizing the debts through generations but not the land in terms of land redistribution or inheritance. ‘Bhoo-Dan’ which literally translates to the redistribution of land was another failed attempt to forgo years of oppression through accumulation of land. The following movement might sound ‘progressive’ and ‘socialist’ in its ethos with the idea of redistribution. But, it was bare minimum to be inclusionary enough to include women and attribute to the women counterpart.

It should also be perceived that whether this failed attempt of charity was rooted in the guilt of being the oppressor or a forced attempt by the state. Even with the attempt of the laws such as the ‘Bhoo-Dan’ act which claimed to be inclusionary in its praxis for the landless labourers by the different state governments, yet it was still exclusionary in its fabric for women and even for the peasants for that matter. The Section 25 of the Maharashtra State Bhoo-Dan Act states that the beneficiary should only comply with the usage of the land for the purpose of ‘cultivation’ only. Such attempts of ‘charity’ by the oppressors – that is the landlord or the government for that matter shows the entitlement of the patron governing as a dictator over the ‘land’ that they have donated. This case is akin to deciding on a beggar’s behalf how they should use the money given to them. The misery of women as a landless labourer is not even taken into due consideration under the Bhoo-Dan Act. The silence is evidence for the lack of sensitivity towards women working as landless labourers.

The three aspects that I have delved deeper into are the gendered role of women and the expectation that it thrives because of unpaid labour, or the question of women being a major portion of the informal sector. This again is part and parcel of invisibilized work drawing from the examples above, in terms of land redistribution and the loopholes in the contemporary laws that are again made by men in positions of power and are subjected to women. The immediate need to unlearn within and to dismantle the normalisation of the care labour, can be a step towards social justice and better working conditions that will be in favour of unpaid women labourers.

- The author is a masters student at the Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Her research interest lies in intersectional feminism, workers rights, rights of tribal entities and the study of violence.