Unpaid and unequally distributed care responsibilities are a major reason women leave the workforce, the Deputy Minister of Women and Child Affairs told a regional gathering in Seoul, the Daily Mirror reported.
“When we ask why women leave the workforce, why families struggle to balance work and home, or why opportunities remain unequal, we often arrive at the same answer: care,” the Deputy Minister said.
The forum addressed transforming care systems for women’s economic empowerment. The Deputy Minister said the issue was particularly acute in Sri Lanka, where women continue to struggle to balance employment against childcare, care of elderly relatives, household duties and other unpaid work — labour she described as essential to families, workplaces and economies yet routinely ignored and undervalued.
“Every success story is also a care story,” she said, noting that behind every child who learns, every worker who contributes and every leader who serves there is usually someone providing care.
A plan drafted but not yet approved
The concrete policy disclosure in the speech is the state of Sri Lanka’s instruments.
The National Social Protection Strategy identifies social care as a priority, the Deputy Minister said, and a National Action Plan on Social Care has been developed and is awaiting Ministerial approval. The government’s stated long-term aim is to write care into national plans, programmes and budgets, reducing the burden on families while improving women’s access to employment.
She said attitudinal change was needed alongside greater investment in childcare, eldercare and services for persons with disabilities, and that care should be treated as a shared responsibility of families, communities, employers and the State rather than mainly a women’s obligation.
The regional track
Sri Lanka took part earlier this year in the SAARC Transform Care South Asia Dialogue in Nepal, organised by SAARC and UN Women with support from the Republic of Korea, which fed into a regional action plan on transforming care systems.
The Deputy Minister said countries in the region could learn from one another on childcare, eldercare, disability inclusion, public investment, data systems and social attitudes. “No country has all the answers,” she said, adding that Sri Lanka was ready to work with the Republic of Korea, UN Women and regional partners.
Context
The care economy has been a recurring theme in Sri Lankan policy discussion this year. The ILO convened a Colombo hub on unpaid care work under its South-4-Care programme — a separate event from the Seoul gathering — and the Prime Minister addressed the politics of the care economy at Sussex in May. A national social protection action plan developed with the ILO was reported in August.
An identification the report leaves open
The Daily Mirror does not name the Deputy Minister, referring to the office throughout while using “she” for the speaker. Earlier coverage of the ministry has recorded Namal Sudarshana as Deputy Minister of Women and Child Affairs, speaking on amendments to the National Child Protection Authority Act and on a ministry report into a child abandonment case in Wattegama. On the strength of this report alone the speaker in Seoul cannot be identified, and LankaNewz is not assuming the two are the same person.
Not reported
The report does not name the Seoul event, its host or its dates, or say which other countries attended. It does not say when the National Action Plan on Social Care was completed, which Minister must approve it, how long it has been pending, or what it would cost. No figure is given for Sri Lanka’s female labour force participation rate — the statistic the entire argument turns on — and no timeline is offered for writing care into the Budget.
No other verified newsroom had filed on the Deputy Minister’s remarks at the time of writing.
