Time to Reimagine Contours of Labour

The world finds itself suspended between progress and regress.

- NARAYANAN KIZHUMUNDAYUR

Across continents, societies have stepped into roles that are neither fully formed nor fully understood, leading nations, corporations, and academia to enact laws, issue pronouncements, and create slogans in pursuit of gender equality. But beneath the veneer of progress lies a persistent and insidious disparity: the gender pay gap, narrower in some places than in others, continues to haunt societies across the globe. But insidiously, hidden beneath the surface, lies an unquantifiable disparity in the realm of invisible domestic work and caregiving, which remains overwhelmingly female and continues to shape the very structure of societies without ever being reflected in balance sheets or budgets.

The term "unpaid labour" refers to the time spent cooking meals, caring for children, planning family activities, and managing the emotional well-being of others, ensuring the smooth functioning of households. These acts of care, both physically and emotionally demanding, are rarely recognized as "work" in the economic sense because they do not produce goods or services, they do not generate income, and they are absent from official statistics. Their value is incalculable.

Consider a society where if all this invisible work were to cease for even a single day, the consequences that would follow are enough to reveal the extent of our dependence on it. In truth, unpaid labour forms the bedrock upon which visible work is built. Without it, many would be unable to go to their jobs, children would not be cared for, and the elderly would not be ensured their basic needs are met, fed, and cared for. Professionals often pursue their careers because they have someone to care for their aging parents. This invisible labour enables visible labour—and yet it remains unmeasured, unpaid, and unvalued.