Care Work, Women Employment and Decent Work: An Essential Human Aspiration

Various aspects of socio-economic development in India such as a sizeable decline in fertility rates, a rapid decline in gender gap in education warrant for higher Female Labour Force Participation. Yet despite these advances, Female Labour Force Participation remains low in the youngest country of the world. So apart from several socio-economic behavioural factors that are responsible for this lower female participation in workforce, one of the major reasons is gendered division of labour and lack of decent work that curbs women's aspirations. Particularly in Haryana, there are other factors that impact women's work. A state where societal norms are so deeply rooted such that women's participation in the labour market may threaten the socially prescribed role of men. The paper addresses the complex puzzle of attaining gender parity thereby focusing on sustainable development goals 5 and 8 i.e., making sustainable economic growth process gender inclusive and aiming at employment and decent work for all by 2030. Descriptive statistics on periodic labour force surveys (PLFS 2017-18 to 2023-24) and time in use survey (TUS, 2019) are done to enumerate the gendered division of labour that impacts women's participation in the labour market. The result depicts that gendered work divide is one of the crucial parameters that need to be addressed by policy measures that would promote women employment and decent work.