What is Women’s Work? Challenges of Measurement for Policy Design

The NCAER Gender Hub and FESDIG (Feminist Economics Saturday Discussion Group) jointly organised a hybrid discussion on “What is Women’s Work? Challenges of Measurement for Policy Design” on 12 June 2023, at NCAER.

Despite the strong policy interest in women’s low and declining work participation in India, data and research on this subject continues to show contrasting and puzzling results. This discussion explored these puzzles and examined how far the definition of women’s work and its measurement are consistent with policy needs.

The discussion was held in two parts. During the first hour, participants from different backgrounds briefly offered their perspectives on definitions and measurement of women’s work, including work in the digital economy, the informal sector, and data biases in collection. The second hour was devoted to an open discussion on the topic.

The discussion was hosted by Sonalde Desai, Professor, NCAER; Pallavi Choudhuri, Senior Fellow, NCAER; and Bina Agarwal, Founder, FESDIG.

The other eminent participants in the discussion included Renana Jhabvala, SEWA Bharat; Poonam Muttreja, Population Foundation of India; Nayantara Sarma, World Bank; Deepita Chakravarty, Ambedkar University, Delhi; Shiva Kumar, Harvard Kennedy School;  Paromita Sen, SEWA Bharat; Bornali Bhandari, NCAER; Aiman Haque, SEWA Bharat; Saba Ahmed, SEWA Bharat; Nandini Dey, SEWA Bharat; Rosa Abraham, Azim Premji University; Ellina Samantroy, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute; Aasha Kapur Mehta, Institute for Human Development; Jeemol Unni, Ahmedabad University; Amaresh Dubey, NCAER and Jawaharlal Nehru University; Kieran Walsh, ILO; Ratna Sudarshan, former Institute of Social Studies Trust; and Sona Mitra, IWWAGE, Krea University.