Situating women's unpaid work in a development context

This paper seeks to critically review existing literature that addresses issues of unpaid work, particularly, the conceptualisation and valuation of care work as part of unpaid work. The valuation of unpaid care work appears to be largely delayed due to practical and methodological difficulties. On the contrary, what may be required is a value based framework based on equity considerations to pitch for recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work. This becomes all the more important considering how engagements with unpaid work particularly care work can be disempowering and negatively affect women's well being. We also critically examine the rationale for unpaid care work through the theoretical frames of the Neoclassical, the Feminist Marxist and the Feminist schools of thought. Though there are divisions within the feminist thought on valuation and payment for unpaid work, it provides a more nuanced treatment to the motives behind care work. The paper also assesses the policy sensitiveness of the rights based employment program MGNREGA in incorporating unpaid care concerns in terms of its stated objectives, implementation and outcomes. Evaluation studies on MGNREGA shows that while the intent of the program appears satisfactory, the implementation and outcomes leave much to be desired.