In Faisalabad, WISE organized the second leg of its research report launch titled “Contribution of Women Domestic Workers in Unpaid Care Work.” Representatives from various government departments, civil society, trade unions, as well as students and academics, participated in the event.

The research- first of its nature on care economy, focuses on four dimensions of Care Work, including 1) domestic care dimension, 2) child care, 3) elderly care and 4) care of persons with special persons. These dimensions were measured in terms of average time spent in these activities every month and economic calculation of same activities every month.

Sharing key findings of the research, the author of the report, Dr. Shahla told that 90% women spend 6 hours on average on unpaid care work within their homes, making it 180 hours/per month, valuing Rs.27,693 per month minimum wage (Rs.32000) set by the Punjab govt.

For Domestic Care dimension, with four major sub-indices; cleaning, washing, ironing and cooking, a sample size of 209 women spent a total 13154 hours/one month at the value of Rs. 2.02 million. Similarly, for Child Care dimension, 52,058 hours were spent valuing Rs. 8.01 million. For Elderly Care 9470 hours were spent valuing Rs.1.4 million and for Care of People with Special Needs dimension, a total 26729 hours were spent in a month by the 209 women worth Rs.4.11 million.

The participants were of the view that Care work is seen as a women’s work which is undervalued by society. As a result, the profound impact of this unequal distribution of responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work has on women’s empowerment. It is important to recognize unpaid care work as work and redistribute it within family so that the total amount of unpaid care work is more fairly shared, and shift some of the cost and responsibility to the state and private sector.