Unpaid Care Work: The Invisible Tax on Girls and Women
Fetching water, cooking, cleaning, caring for younger siblings and nursing elderly relatives is work. It is essential, it is unpaid, and it is done mostly by women and girls. Because it happens inside the home, it rarely appears in employment statistics. Yet it sets a hard limit on how much time a girl has for school, and a woman has for paid work.
Part 8 of 10 in our series on the consequences of poverty and inequality on girls and women. Series overview · All articles.
What the evidence says
The International Labour Organization estimates that women perform about 76% of unpaid care work worldwide, roughly three times more than men. Its 2018 report put the global volume at around 16.4 billion hours every day. If that work were paid at a minimum wage, it would be worth trillions of dollars a year.
The consequence is time poverty. A girl who spends two hours a day fetching water and three hours on household work has little left for homework, rest or play. A woman with the same load cannot accept a full-time job or attend training. The work is not counted in GDP, but it is counted in the choices people cannot make.
How poverty and inequality drive it
Poverty makes care work heavier. Without piped water, a girl walks further. Without electricity or gas, cooking takes longer. Without childcare, a mother cannot leave for work. Without a functioning health system, an elderly relative is cared for at home. Poor infrastructure converts a normal household task into a daily burden.
Gender norms decide who carries it. Care is treated as women's natural responsibility, so a daughter is withdrawn from school before a son when a grandparent falls ill. The burden intensifies during shocks: migration, drought, conflict and illness all push more care onto girls. Once a girl has taken on that role, it is hard to hand back.
What it does to a girl's life
Unpaid care work is one of the most common reasons girls drop out or miss school. It reduces study time, increases lateness and absence, and makes it harder to sit exams. Over time, the girl who is always needed at home becomes the girl who is not expected to continue. Her brothers, meanwhile, are freed to study.
In adulthood, the same pattern limits paid work. Women with heavy care burdens are more likely to work part-time, informally or not at all. That reduces their earnings, savings and bargaining power at home. It also reduces their voice in decisions about marriage, contraception and their children's education, which is how the inequality passes to the next generation.
The health cost is real too. Carrying water and fuel, cooking over smoke and lifting children for years produces chronic back, joint and respiratory problems. Care work is physically demanding, but it is rarely treated as an occupational health issue. Women often describe exhaustion, isolation and a loss of identity, not because care is worthless, but because it is done alone and without recognition.
In India
India's Time Use Survey 2019 found that women spent about 299 minutes a day on unpaid domestic services, compared with 97 minutes for men. Women also spent far more time on care for children and the elderly. Female labour force participation remains low, at around 37% in 2022-23, against roughly 79% for men, and care work is one of the main reasons.
CRY has documented how girls in poor households take on sibling care and domestic work, especially when mothers migrate for work or fathers are absent. The pattern is strongest in rural areas, where water, fuel and health services are furthest away. India's time-use data make visible what was previously assumed: care work is a major constraint on women's economic participation.
What changes it
Reducing the burden requires investment in infrastructure and services: piped water, clean cooking fuel, childcare, elder care and accessible health facilities. It also requires redistribution within households, which is a norm change, not only a policy one. Paid parental leave, flexible work and affordable childcare make it easier for women to take paid work.
For girls, the most direct interventions are school-based: meals, water and sanitation, and after-school support. A school that provides a meal and a safe place to study reduces the pull of home work. Scholarships that cover transport and materials also help, because they reduce the time a girl spends on income-generating chores.
What Sneha Karma Foundation does
Our Skills Development programme helps women turn learning into income, and Artisans Direct creates a market for their work. Both depend on women having time to participate, which is why we work with families on sharing care.
Read how skills become a steady income in Assam to see what changes when a woman has time and training.
Donate · Sponsor a girl · Volunteer · Contact us
Frequently asked questions
Cooking, cleaning, water and fuel collection, childcare, elder care and community care, done without pay. It is work even when it is not counted as employment.
Norms assign care to women and girls, so a daughter is withdrawn from school first when care is needed. The burden follows her into adulthood.
Yes. Affordable, reliable childcare is one of the strongest predictors of women's paid employment, along with water and fuel infrastructure.
Support school meals, transport and materials that reduce the time a girl spends on chores. You can give to education programmes or sponsor a girl.
Sources
- ILO: care work and care jobs
- ILO: unpaid care work
- UN Women: unpaid care work
- India Time Use Survey 2019
- CRY: child rights
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