In a policy climate where much discussion has been focused on affirmative action and demand oriented policies such as reservations, the study ascribes significance to supply-side solutions. Unless women feel safe and confident about managing household tasks and care for their children and the elderly, increased female work participation would create greater stress for working women. Investment in infrastructure like safe public can enable women to access more distant jobs and distances. Further, policy stimulus to institutionalise care-related support while allowing for flexible hours for women workers can harness their participation. Childcare or elderly care debates in urban India have been close to non-existent with the dominant view being that providing quality care for the household is a primarily private, familial and female task. More workplace reform and public involvement in care provision is needed along with a stronger sense of collective responsibility.

‘Care work’ needs to be recognised as an active ingredient in national economic growth. It is not necessary for all women to find paid jobs. Urban women may seek work or choose not to join the workforce. However, the Delhi survey affirms that women are making such choices within a predetermined patriarchal context, where women are cast as the sole providers of household care and their responsibilities as daughters, housewives, mothers and sisters remain invisible and unvalued. While women’s choice not to work is rendered acceptable, can women choose not to care?

The writer is a research analyst with the Institute of Social Studies Trust