Care policies and reconciliation of work and family life: experiences of women workers

Abstract

The paper is contextualized within the framework of ILO Convention 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities (1981). The Convention recognises the problems of workers with family responsibilities and emphasises on the need to create effective equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women workers with family responsibilities and between such workers and other workers. In India, women’s normative responsibilities of domestic work and childcare severely affect their work-participation rates, the occupations where they are recruited or concentrated and their own choice of paid employment. This paper is based on primary research conducted amongst women workers in five sectors and discusses the issues regarding the reconciliation of their work and family life. It examines the workplace policies on care across these sectors and explores the implications of such policies on women’s choices of work and employment as well as balancing their work and family responsibilities. The contribution of the paper lies in informing policy initiatives that can promote a more sustainable and equitable work-life balance and greater gender equality in care responsibilities, on the basis of the findings of the survey and the recommendations of the ILO Convention 156.