IT is a well-established ethical principle that the work someone does must be recognised and valued. The dignity of a person cannot be separated from the idea that they have the right to deploy their physical and mental faculties how they will, and that they have the right to the fruit of that effort. One of the reasons we find slavery abhorrent is that its institution violates these fundamental premises of what it is to be human. So how is it that for a huge segment of the population these ethical principles and standards can be set aside as a matter of routine without provoking concern let alone outrage? And how do we challenge and change this situation?

According to the government’s Labour Force Survey of 2024-25, there are 70 million people aged between 16 and 60 years in the workforce, and of these 13m are classified as “contributing family workers”. They are people who are eng­a­ged in the production of goods and services for the market, or to produce goods for household con­­sumption, but are not individually compensa­ted by pay or profit. Of these 13m, 8m are women.

But this number underestimates women’s productive work because it is based on responses to the question at the household level about whether an individual works. Communities, families and even women themselves do not recognise that they work, even while they know that they perform essential productive activities. When the same national survey asks if each listed individual in the household takes part in named productive activities — for example,........

© Dawn