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akistan has ratified 36 International Labour Organisation conventions, including eight core ones. Three crucial conventions that directly pertain to the care economy remain unratified. These are:
Despite this, some principles of these conventions have found partial expression in federal and provincial laws. Paid maternity and paternity leave provisions exist and the Punjab pioneered a Domestic Workers Policy in 2015. Formal laws were later passed in the Punjab, Balochistan and at the federal level; Sindh is in the final stages of legislating its own domestic workers’ law.
Women in Pakistan shoulder a disproportionate share of unpaid care work within households, extended families and communities. They are mostly unpaid and undervalued. These women are silent contributors to the national GDP. According to UN Women (2023):
This imbalance is not only stark but economically significant, yet largely invisible in national data and public policy.
Domestic care workers, many of whom provide vital services in childcare, eldercare and disability support, operate in highly precarious and informal environments. Most are low- or semi-literate women from marginalised socioeconomic backgrounds. Their work, though physically and emotionally demanding, remains undervalued and unprotected.
Data from the field presents a clear picture of conditions of care work. The reports and case studies reveal persistent challenges including the following:
Despite legislative advances for domestic care work (domestic workers), enforcement remains weak due to lack of inspections, registration systems and implementation mechanisms.
The care economy is a multi-sectoral issue demanding coordinated action. This silent and invisible sector of the economy intersects multiple policy domains: labour, human rights, social protection, planning and local governance. Effective reform demands collaboration across:
Pakistan lacks institutional mechanisms to measure care work. Time-use surveys are neither standardised nor institutionalised. Delay in the labour force surveys and timely editions of emerging indicators is crucial for data collection authorities in order to fill in the missing numbers from Pakistan care economy. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and provincial bureaus must be engaged in developing gender-sensitive care indicators within national household surveys.
There are alarming gaps in the care economy policies. The ILO’s Global Care Policy Portal (2021) highlights major shortfalls in Pakistan’s care policy framework. These include:
Maternity Leave:
Paternity and Parental Leave:
Childcare Leave:
Eldercare and Emergency Leave:
Workplace Protections for Pregnant and Nursing Women:
The cumulative result is a glaring care gap; a systemic failure to support caregivers across the lifecycle. This undermines gender equality and economic participation. Despite some good initiatives, Pakistan still lacks a cohesive approach to correlate its exiting numbers with care economy indicators and present a satisfactory state. The missing links in the existing policy frameworks and legislation present another challenge in reporting and ensuring inclusion and protection of care givers.
In order to close the gender care gap it’s important to ratify key ILO conventions C183 (Maternity), C156 (Family Responsibilities) and C189 (Domestic Workers). Ratifying ILO conventions is not just about compliance, it’s about dignity, rights and the future of decent work. Paid paternity leave and parental leave with job security, wage protection, and inclusivity are similarly important.
Social protection needs to be expended to include informal and self-employed workers, including domestic and adoptive caregivers. There is a need to strengthen maternity protections by ensuring safe work environments, job continuity and breastfeeding facilities.
It’s crucial to establish national childcare and eldercare ecosystems through public funded initiatives, integrated into communities and workplaces through local government.
Care work is skilled work. Yet it is often underpaid, unprotected and overwhelmingly invisible.
In order to catalyse change, awareness is key. Raising awareness about the care economy must go hand-in-hand with policy reform. Key suggested actions include:
Pakistan’s care economy is vastly underdeveloped, perpetuating gender inequalities and excluding millions of women from the formal labour force. Addressing this gap is not just a gender issue; it is an economic, social and developmental imperative. With political will, inclusive policy design and sustained investment, care work can become recognised, valued and protected as a public good. Care is not charity; it is labour, deserving public investment and policy protection.
The writer can be reached at lailazharaligmail.com