{"id":13412,"date":"2025-10-29T12:35:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/10\/29\/boosting-pakistans-care-economy-digital-cities\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:03:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:03:57","slug":"boosting-pakistans-care-economy-digital-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/10\/29\/boosting-pakistans-care-economy-digital-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Shoulder 60% of Unpaid Care in Pakistan, ILO Calls for Urgent Policy Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Over 117.4 million women and men<\/strong> in Pakistan are engaged in unpaid care and domestic work, with women making up the overwhelming majority \u2014 66.7 million<\/strong>. As the world marks the International Day of Care and Support<\/em>, the International Labour Organization (ILO)<\/strong> has urged Pakistan to strengthen recognition of care work and take coordinated action to ensure decent work, social protection, and equality<\/strong> for all care workers.<\/p>\n

Women remain overrepresented<\/strong> in nearly all unpaid domestic and caregiving roles \u2014 from cooking and cleaning to child and elder care, and livestock tending. Around 60 per cent of women<\/strong> spend more than 15 hours per week<\/strong> on domestic work, compared to just 7 per cent of men<\/strong>. This imbalance leads to time poverty<\/strong> and lost economic opportunities<\/strong> for women, restricting their entry and advancement in the paid care sector while reinforcing the gender pay gap.<\/p>\n

Globally, women constitute two-thirds of the health workforce<\/strong> but earn, on average, 20 per cent less than men<\/strong> and remain underrepresented in leadership roles.<\/p>\n

The ILO\u2019s Decent Work Country Programme (2023\u20132027)<\/strong> identifies domestic, home-based, sanitation, and community health workers<\/strong> as priority groups for enhanced rights, protections, and gender-responsive workplaces.<\/p>\n

Geir Tonstol<\/strong>, Country Director for ILO Pakistan, stated, \u201cThe ILO in Pakistan aims to transform care work into decent work, providing care workers with dignity, fair wages, and comprehensive social protection. As a pathfinder country to the Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection, Pakistan has the opportunity to scale up domestic investments \u2014 creating a virtuous cycle where decent jobs and stronger social protection foster more resilient economies and just societies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the ILO\u2013OECD\u2013WHO Working for Health (W4H)<\/strong> initiative, the organization is supporting Pakistan to integrate occupational safety and health (OSH)<\/strong> standards into healthcare regulation, improve working conditions, and strengthen workforce capacity.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s National Health Vision<\/strong> pledges to raise the health sector\u2019s GDP allocation to 3% by the next decade<\/strong>, an investment that could help create safer workplaces, improve professional training, and retain skilled healthcare workers. Together with the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (MoNHSR&C)<\/strong>, the ILO is also working to develop a national OSH policy<\/strong> for the health sector as part of progress toward Universal Health Coverage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Recent progress includes the registration of the United Domestic Workers Federation<\/strong> in Punjab under the ILO\u2019s Promoting Rights and Social Inclusion (PRS) Project<\/strong>, supported by the Government of Japan<\/strong>. The project has strengthened representation for domestic workers and encouraged constructive dialogue between employers and employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe PRS Project has given voice and visibility to domestic workers in Punjab,\u201d said Arooma Shahzad<\/strong>, General Secretary of the Federation. \u201cThe registration of the Domestic Workers Employers Association and the development of a Code of Conduct for employers are concrete steps showing employers\u2019 willingness to engage on this critical issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

To sustain reform in Pakistan\u2019s care sector, the ILO calls for coordinated policy action, including minimum education and training standards<\/strong>, lifelong learning access<\/strong>, career progression pathways<\/strong>, fair wages<\/strong>, safe workplaces<\/strong>, adequate rest periods<\/strong>, and comprehensive social protection<\/strong>, particularly for women and informal workers.<\/p>\n

The ILO\u2019s 5R Framework<\/strong>\u2014to Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward,<\/em> and Represent<\/em> care work\u2014remains central to addressing unpaid labour and building a fair, inclusive care economy. Pakistan\u2019s adoption of this framework could ensure greater dignity and equality for millions of care workers nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn how Pakistan can boost its care economy with digital city tools and targeted investment to protect care workers and strengthen urban inclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13413,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13412\/revisions\/13413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}