Answer

Introduction

The Supreme Court’s recognition of homemakers as “nation builders” and valuation of unpaid domestic work at ₹30,000 per month advances substantive equality by acknowledging invisible labour, but deeper structural constraints continue to impede women’s economic empowerment.

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Significant Step Towards Substantive Equality

• Recognising Economic Value: Assigning monetary value to unpaid care work acknowledges homemakers’ contribution to the economy beyond traditional GDP calculations.
  Eg: Supreme Court (2026) fixed a minimum value of ₹30,000 per month for homemakers’ domestic work while determining compensation in the Reshma case. 
• Dignity and Status: Recognition of homemakers as contributors promotes substantive equality by valuing traditionally feminised work.
• Gender Justice: The judgment advances substantive equality by accounting for gendered realities rather than treating unequal situations identically.
• Judicial Precedent: By valuing unpaid domestic care at ₹30,000 per month in motor accident claims, it set a benchmark for future compensation assessments.
• Policy Visibility: Recognition brings unpaid care work into public policy discourse and evidence-based decision-making.
  Eg: Time Use Survey 2019 (MoSPI) highlighted women spent 289 minutes daily on unpaid domestic work against men’s 88 minutes, reflecting a 201-minute gender gap. 

Systemic Shortfalls

• Labour Exclusion: Valuation after death does not address barriers preventing women’s entry into paid employment.
• Care Infrastructure Gaps: Women continue to shoulder unpaid care burdens due to inadequate support systems.
• Wage Inequality: Recognition of homemaking does not eliminate discrimination within labour markets.
• Informal Employment: Most working women remain concentrated in insecure, low-paid informal occupations.
• Asset Deficits: Financial valuation does not improve women’s ownership of productive resources and decision-making power.
  Eg: Agriculture Census 2015-16 recorded women operating only about 14% of landholdings.

Way Forward

• Care Economy: Expand quality childcare, eldercare and community support services to reduce unpaid burdens.
  Eg: Strengthen and universalise Anganwadi services under Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0.
• Employment Access: Enhance women’s access to skills, formal jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities.
  Eg: Skill India Mission and PM Vishwakarma initiatives targeting women’s livelihoods.
• Equal Pay: Ensure effective implementation of laws guaranteeing non-discriminatory wages under Code on Wages, 2019.
• Asset Ownership: Promote women’s ownership of land, housing and financial assets.
  Eg: PMAY (Gramin and Urban) encourages property registration in women’s names.
• Gender Budgeting: Integrate unpaid care concerns into fiscal planning and programme design.
  Eg: The Gender Budget Statement in the Union Budget institutionalises gender-responsive expenditure.

Conclusion

While judicial valuation of homemakers’ labour marks an important shift from formal to substantive equality, meaningful economic empowerment requires dismantling structural barriers through care infrastructure, equal opportunities and gender-responsive institutions.

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