Accelerating Care Economy in India

FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), along with G20 EMPOWER and Women Entrepreneurship Platform, NITI Aayog organised an interactive session on ‘Accelerating the Care Economy in India’ on May 15, 2023, at FICCI.

The objective of the session was to explore existing models of care, understand, and learn from experiences and perspectives of practitioners in the civil society, government, and the private sector.

The inaugural session was addressed by Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog & Mission Director, WEP; Sudha Shivkumar, President, FICCI FLO
and Dr. Sangita Reddy, Chair, G20 EMPOWER.

It was followed by a fireside chat between Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM and Dr. V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog on Care Economy in India. The key point that arose from this session was the need for private and public to sit together to think about increasing the maternity leave of the mothers from present six months to nine months, while highlighting the need to come together to create a stimulating environment for a child’s first 1000 days.

The session also witnessed the launch of WEP partnership with SIDBI, AFDB led GROW Network for mentorship of Women Entrepreneurs. Jyoti Vij, Additional Director General, FICCI gave the concluding remarks for the session.

In the Deep Dive Session 1, the discussions revolved around the topic ‘One size does not fit all – exploring alternate models for meeting the need of care?’. The panelists were Sumitra Mishra, Executive Director, Mobile Creches; Bhavana Issar, Founder & CEO, Caregiver Saathi/ Sambhaavna; and Elena Perez Villanueva, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Spain. It was moderated by Sam Vishishta, National Project Coordinator-Care Economy , ILO.

The 2nd Deep Dive Session focussed on ‘Investing in Care: Exploring Partnerships to Strengthen Care Services in India’. Moderated by Sonal Jaitly, Global GESI Lead, Microsave Consulting, the session talked about the role of private sector, philanthropy, and multilaterals in contributing to the development of India’s care economy. The speakers were : Radha Goenka, Director, RPG Enterprises; Hena Usman, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra, Executive Director & Head, Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum Management.

In Fireside chat on ‘Walking the Talk – Commitments from Private Sector to put in place building blocks of the Care Economy, Ms. Sudha Shivkumar, President, FICCI FLO interacted with Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator India. Ranjana Agarwal, Past President, FLO also shared some inputs during this session.

A pledge was signed by the stakeholders and the members present to recognize the importance of care economy and contribute towards expanding care economy in varied ways.

Poonam Sharma, Vice President FLO & Director, Baidyanath Enterprise ltd., Director, Veerangna Foundation gave the vote of thanks.