The invisibility of women's unpaid care, domestic, and emotional labour represents a systemic devaluation rooted in patriarchal economic frameworks." Critically examine this statement and suggest measures for recognition and revaluation of women's labour in India.

Introduction

Mary Collier's 1739 poem "The Woman's Labour" poignantly captured how women's work often goes unseen, a reality that persists nearly three centuries later. According to a 2023 United Nations report, women globally spend 2.8 more hours than men on unpaid care and domestic work daily. While domestic labour has increasingly entered public discourse, the emotional and mental labour involved in sustaining relationships, managing household dynamics, and supporting family well-being continues to go largely unacknowledged. This uncounted labour, which plays a critical role in the smooth functioning of families and societies, is rarely measured or rewarded, raising fundamental questions about economic justice and gender equality.

Structural and Ideological Forces Behind Invisibility

Feminist scholars like Isabella Bakker, Nancy Fraser, and Shirin Rai argue that economic policies have long marginalized care work by framing it as secondary to productive labour traditionally performed by men.

The privileging of male breadwinner employment model has systematically excluded women's contributions from economic calculations.

Relentless focus on GDP growth metrics ignores non-market activities that sustain the workforce and economy.

Emphasis on physical infrastructure investment over social infrastructure diverts public resources away from caregiving services.

Professor Antonella Picchio argues that biological aspects of human reproduction were used to hide historical and social aspects of gender division of labour.

The separation between production and social reproduction took new forms and shaped power relationships within traditional contexts of women's subordination.

Public resources are diverted away from childcare, elder care, and mental health services, domains disproportionately occupied by women.

Global Legislative Efforts for Recognition

Article 338 of Bolivia's Constitution recognizes home work as economic activity creating added value, producing social welfare and wealth, entitling housewives to social security.

Trinidad and Tobago's Counting Unremunerated Work Act, 1996 requires statistical authorities to measure unremunerated work, break it down by gender, and assign monetary value.

Argentina enacted law recognizing domestic workers' employment contracts where women receive pension credits equivalent to social security contributions for unpaid care work raising children.

However, no law globally recognizes mental and emotional labour put in by women to run economy and family.

These efforts remain scattered and insufficient to address the comprehensive nature of women's invisible labour.

Indian Context and Judicial Interventions

India lacks any legal framework recognizing or compensating unpaid domestic and care work despite it being the backbone of families and economy.

In Kannaian Naidu vs Kamsala Ammal (2023), Madras High Court ruled that a wife performing household duties contributed indirectly to acquisition of family assets.

The court held she was entitled to equal share in property, marking significant judicial recognition of women's domestic contributions.

These judicial efforts must be accompanied by structural reconfiguration of gendered social relations wherein men actively participate in care responsibilities.

Without such transformation, burden of unpaid care work will remain disproportionately feminized, constraining women's participation in formal economy.

Women from marginalized socio-economic locations often sustain reproductive labour of households where other women from dominant groups engage in formal employment.

Suggested Measures for India

Constitutional recognition of unpaid care work as economically valuable activity following Bolivia's model.

Time-use surveys to measure and assign monetary value to women's domestic and care work.

Pension credits and social security benefits for women engaged in unpaid household work.

Shared parental leave policies encouraging men to participate in caregiving responsibilities.

Investment in social infrastructure including affordable childcare, elder care, and community support systems.

Conclusion

The revaluation of women's labour must encompass the often invisible factor of emotional labour which plays a critical role in sustaining households, communities, and broader economic systems. Recognition requires not merely policy changes but fundamental transformation in how society conceptualizes productive work. As Professor Shirin Rai argues, we must include this labour appropriately in discourses about work, national budgets, and policy frameworks to achieve genuine gender equality and economic justice.