India stands at a pivotal moment, caught between the promise of a demographic dividend and the crisis of gender inequality. While falling fertility rates, rising female education, and increasing labour force participation signal progress, policymakers continue to neglect one of the most invisible yet vital engines of economic productivity: the care economy. Globally, unpaid care work is estimated to contribute $10 trillion annually, about 13% of global GDP. Yet in India, this labour remains unrecognized and uncompensated, even as it sustains families, communities, and economic growth.

Traditionally, Indian society has cast women as caregivers and men as breadwinners. This cultural norm persists, rendering women's care work largely invisible and undervalued. Indian women spend nearly ten times more hours than men on unpaid household and caregiving tasks, leading to acute time poverty. Around 10% of women bear a dual burden, juggling paid work alongside full-time domestic responsibilities. The strain is particularly severe in urban nuclear households, where the absence of extended family support leaves working women overburdened and chronically exhausted, even as gender roles begin to evolve.

Crèches: A necessity, not a luxury
Despite India's stated commitment to gender equality and universal well-being, institutional support for care work remains glaringly inadequate. Early childhood care infrastructure, particularly crèches, are severely neglected. Public discourse treats crèches as optional or a middle-class privilege but this is fundamentally flawed. Like roads or health centres, crèches are public infrastructure – essential to enable women's participation in the economy. Just as a worker cannot reach a job without transport, a mother cannot work without reliable childcare.
This absence of affordable and accessible crèches hits informal women workers the hardest –those who sell vegetables, work in fields, clean homes or engage in piece-rate work. Young children often accompany their mothers to unsafe and polluted worksites, exposing themselves to physical and psychological risks. Moreover, when mothers depend solely on older daughters or grandmothers for child-minding, we perpetuate the cycle of gendered care responsibilities, affecting girls' education and intergenerational mobility.

The evolution of India's crèche system
India's workplace childcare is embedded in numerous legislative acts spanning over seven decades. The Factories Act 1948 requires crèches only when female workers exceed a certain number, implicitly suggesting that male workers have no childcare needs.The Plantation Labour Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, continue to link creche provisions to female employment numbers. Even the more recent Maternity Benefit Act of 2017, while progressive in many aspects, frames childcare primarily as a mother's concern. This leads us to question: Creches do empower women, but shouldn't they empower parents?

This bias represents a critical blind spot in the government's vision for Viksit Bharat in Amrit Kaal, which explicitly acknowledges women-led development as crucial for national progress. The failure to invest in the National Crèche Scheme (NCS) is a glaring example of misplaced priorities. Between 2017–18 and 2023, the number of operational crèches plummeted from 18,040 to just 2,688 for a population of 1.4 billion. While the scheme evolved to 'Palna' under Mission Shakti in 2022 with some progressive elements, it continues to frame childcare as primarily a women's issue rather than essential infrastructure for all parents.

Structural problems and consequences
The current approach to childcare in India suffers from multiple structural flaws. Creches are now combined with AWCs under the Palna scheme. Anganwadi workers and helpers, predominantly women who form the backbone of this system, receive a meagre Rs. 4,500 and Rs.2,250 monthly ‘honoraria’ rather than a proper salary, reflecting the systematic devaluation of care work. Implementation studies across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh reveal that crèche provisions under MGNREGA have been virtually non-existent, while southern states with better crèche implementation show higher women's workforce participation, highlighting significant regional disparities.

This gender-specific framing of childcare creates multiple challenges that reinforce inequality. It discourages employers from hiring women by making female employment appear more “costly” due to additional infrastructure requirements. Workplaces with predominantly male employees are absolved from providing childcare support, despite their workers' caregiving responsibilities. The approach perpetuates traditional gender roles by failing to recognize men as potential caregivers.For working mothers, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, this creates impossible choices between leaving children in unsafe conditions or sacrificing economic participation. The absence of quality childcare increases risks of malnutrition and developmental delays for children, while mothers experience heightened psychological stress.

The path forward
Feminist economists have long argued that care work must be recognized, reduced, and redistributed. Recognition means valuing unpaid work in national accounting systems. Reduction involves investing in time-saving infrastructure like water taps, LPG, and childcare. Redistribution demands shifting some care responsibilities from women to men, and from families to the state. India has made some progress on the first two fronts, but has completely failed on the third. Redistribution cannot occur without institutional mechanisms like crèches. Simply urging men to help more ignores the structural reality where families are often too poor or overburdened to manage care alone. Only the state has the scale and legitimacy to intervene.

Moreover, every rupee invested in childcare generates multiple returns in increased female labour force participation, higher household incomes and improved child outcomes. It's a triple dividend – for women, children, and the economy. India's path to gender equality requires counterintuitive action: slowing down to build stronger foundations. By professionalizing and properly valuing care work, especially in crucial systems like crèches, we can generate momentum toward genuine gender parity and improved health outcomes.

Dr. Ishika Arora is a medical professional working at Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi. Dr. Balhasan Ali is a Researcher at Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors. They do not represent the official stance or views of the any of its affiliated entities.)