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Balancing Consumer Economy and Care Economy
Context:
The consumer economy cannot ignore the importance of the care economy, which involves unpaid work. For a strong and healthy workforce, the decision makers must focus on supporting and valuing the natural instincts we have to provide care, even though this work often goes unnoticed and is not recognized as part of history.
About Care and Care Economy:
- Care: Beyond Commodities and Economic Models
- Care Is an Interpersonal Relationship, Not a Commodity: Care cannot be measured through transactional economic models of buying and selling. It is a deeper, personal connection between individuals.
- About Care Economy:
- According to ILO Care at work Report, care work encompasses a wide range of activities and relationships that meet the physical, psychological, and emotional needs of individuals of all ages. This work can be categorised into compensated (paid) and unpaid/underpaid labour,
- This includes both paid and unpaid work, such as childcare, elder care, and domestic responsibilities, which are predominantly performed by women.
- Job Creation Potential: The ILO estimates that investment in India’s care economy can potentially produce 11 million jobs.
- This investment is crucial for enhancing female labour force participation and achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, which promotes sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth.
Need for Care Based Economy:
- The Limitations of Punishment-Based Approaches: Policies that rely on punishment, like Diwali firecracker bans, are not sustainable or effective on a large scale. They fail to address the underlying need for cultural and behavioural change.
- The Value of Hidden Acts of Care: Small, uncelebrated acts of care, as suggested in Middlemarch, are crucial for the well-being of society. These hidden acts form the foundation of a caring community.
Challenges faced in Promoting care based Economy:
- Everyone Has the Urge to Care, But Gender Roles Matter
- While caregiving is a natural instinct for all, women are often encouraged to take on these roles, while men are not given the same support or opportunities.
- Many men, especially from elite backgrounds, struggle with fatherhood because societal expectations prioritise wealth and status over emotional care.
Way Forward to promote Care Economy:
- Rethinking Men’s Role in Caregiving: There is a need for a new approach to caregiving education, particularly for men. Teaching caregiving skills at home and in schools will help break traditional gender roles and encourage more balanced caregiving responsibilities.
- Everyday Acts of Care Amidst Crisis
- During tough times, small acts of care, such as health professionals’ efforts, phone calls of encouragement, and strangers offering blood donations, become essential.
- These everyday acts of concern emphasise the importance of care beyond the consumer-driven celebrations.
- Shifting the Economic Focus from Consumption to Care
- Policymakers must recognize and value the hidden acts of care if they want to promote healthier families, workplaces, and environments.
- The economy should focus on love, care, and human connection, not just consumption and penalties.
Care and Consumption Should Not Be Separate
- Economic behaviours like spending, saving, and working are deeply tied to our social nature and need for connection.
- The care economy and the consumer economy should be seen as interconnected, rather than separate.
The Need to Balance Care and Consumerism
- There is growing concern that modern Indian culture prioritises self-competition and consumerism, often at the expense of care.
- Policymakers and institutions must work to dignify caregiving, especially in a society that increasingly tells us to be “too cool to care.”
What Would an Economy Centred on Care Look Like:
- Rewarding Care Work:
- An economy focused on care would fairly compensate caregivers.
- In India, 360 million children and 147 million elderly people need care, with women doing most of the unpaid work.
- Women, especially those with paid jobs, face severe time poverty, doing six times more unpaid care work than men. Reforms in tax brackets, wages, and retirement policies for women are needed.
- Supporting Frontline Care Workers
- Government care workers (e.g., ASHAs, Anganwadi workers), home-based carers, and domestic workers face the effects of pollution and pandemics.
- They deserve fair wages and social security.
- Promoting Caring Relationships
- An economy focused on care would foster strong caregiving relationships.
- While families traditionally provide care, the ideal of the Indian family is not always reliable, especially for the elderly.
- Social pensions, better childcare, and business incentives for care services are needed.
- Revolutionising the Value of Care Work
- Society needs a shift in how care work is valued.
- Nel Noddings emphasised that learning caregiving through personal experiences fosters understanding of broader social issues.
- This education involves encounters that promote growth, knowledge, and appreciation for others.
