Our proposal to the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights for: A Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth
A PROPOSAL FOR THE SPECIAL UN RAPPORTEUR ON POVERTY
relating to all five areas but most especially to social protections, labour and
the care economy, the climate and global solidarity – 30 March 2025
A care income for all caring work for people and planet
1. Increased recognition for caring work
In recent years and especially since the Covid lockdowns, there has been increased recognition of the importance of caring work, unwaged and low waged, and the impoverishment faced by those who carry out this work, overwhelmingly women everywhere starting with mothers. In 2022, UN Womenframed caring as a universal right and an essential building block for economic and social well-being. But how is this to be implemented?
Cash transfers that target women have been introduced in a number of countries both in the Global South and the Global North as a way of tackling poverty, especially women’s and children’s, the poorest of the poor. It is generally accepted, though not always stated, that the best way to end child poverty is to end the poverty of mothers. When the US expanded its Child Tax Credit (CTC) for a year in 2021 to include families too poor to pay taxes, including many single mother families, child poverty fell by 46%. (See below.) Such cash transfers work best when they are unconditional (as the CTC was) and do not place a burden on those who receive them.
Some unconditional cash transfers recognise women’s unwaged contribution to families and society. Independent feminist MP Eleanor Rathbone said when she campaigned and finally won an income for mothers known as Family Allowance in 1945:
[N]othing can justify the subordination of one group of producers – the mothers – to the rest, and their deprivation of all share of their own in the wealth of a community which depends on them for its very existence. The Disinherited Family
In 2023, the State of Tamil Nadu, India, introduced unconditional cash transfers to women. Recognition of women’s hard work was integral to them.
Women play a significant role in society by investing countless hours in both domestic responsibilities and external work. They contribute to men’s accomplishments, ensure the education and well-being of children, and support the overall functioning of society. If the value of this labour were to be calculated, women’s names would rightfully hold equal status in family properties, without the need for specific laws. See full report: here.
Caring is hard and skilled work, but it is not a job like any other. It is truly a labour of love, a relationship, the essence of life and of community. It is by its very nature anti-growth-for-growth-sake because it is focused on life not on profits. If properly valued and supported, caring for others is varied and empowering, much more than many sectors of employment. The poverty and financial dependence usually attached to caring hide its potential. To the three Rs many NGOs talk about – recognise, reduce, redistribute – we must finally add: REMUNERATE.
Financial and social recognition are crucial to raising the status of caring so it becomes a valued and attractive activity not only for women but for all genders, and so everyone’s right to care throughout our lives becomes a reality based onneed, choice and mutual respect. This is crucial since in an inaccessible and prejudiced world, living and coping with disability and ill-health is itself constant hard work.
A “care industry”, both public and private, is growing. It is not based on our right to choose how and by whom care is provided or on the rights of the workers who provide care. Like any other industry, it is based on commodifying. depersonalising and bureaucratising those of us who rely on care, and on profits extracted from low standards of care and low pay of an overwhelmingly female and often immigrant workforce. This “care industry” has inflicted lifelong trauma to children who are taken from their families, especially impoverished single mothers of colour and/or immigrant and/or disabled, by the State in the name of child protection and handed over to a privatized child removal industry which profits from their pain. Unconditional cash transfers are key to countering such an industry so that families and individuals have a real choice, thus raising standards of service and pay for everyone.
| We call these cash payments a care income and we extend the work of caring not only for people but for the environment on which our survival depends – for all life. The care income we are proposing aims to empower both the person who needs care and the person who provides it. It does not aim to “free women from the burden of caring” so they can become “economically active”. Neither does it aim to stop women from pursuing other employment or to limit caring to women. What it does is to promote a caring relationship ofdignity and respect for people of all genders while ending carers’ poverty and overwork. |
The assumption that any other job, regardless of wages and working conditions, is better than caring devalues the relationship of care and the quality of life of the whole community. It has institutionalised carers, especially single mothers, into an endless double and triple day of unwaged and low waged work while depriving society of the time and attention caring demands. In many countries children face an empty home after school and older and disabled people are parked in institutions because everyone else in the family is out at waged work. Chronic loneliness is a growing health-concern.
A care income from the State would begin to acknowledge the great debt society owes to carers and address the roots of their poverty. It would enable carers to be guided by what is required rather than by enforced financial dependence within the family or the need to earn cash to survive. And those who depend on their care would not be in the hands of an exploitative care industry based on profits not their welfare. Our international survey, What Mothers and Other Carers Want, showed that most would welcome this but their views are ignored. (See below and here.)
Our proposal is founded on evidence that payments work and on an international grassroots network which has been campaigning for a care income for over 50 years. See some of the demands being made and in what countries, and the recent evaluation of the unconditional cash transfer paid to 90 million women in Tamil Nadu, which shows the potential of such payments in helping redress inequality in the home and in society.
2. A care income for people and planet and who should get it
Caring for others is the foundation of every society. But, as we’ve said, this work, done mostly by women, in the home, on the land and in the community, is devalued, unwaged or low waged, leading to poverty, dependence and endless work. The Covid pandemic and above all the climate emergency have forced us to recognise that caring for and protecting not only people but the natural world must become the universal priority.
Regenerating the land, the air and the seas is essential to stopping and reversing ecological destruction and climate change. But those in charge of the world, their corporations and their weapons, are hijacking our present and our future in their insane pursuit of profit and power. They are endangering our very survival, starting with those of us in the Global South and in Indigenous and working-class communities, often immigrant and/or of colour, everywhere.
Enough wealth has been accumulated to pay for the reproduction of life rather than subsidise the endless growth of destructive and polluting industries.
As part of a dynamic change of direction we PROPOSE a guaranteed CARE income for those – of all genders and identities, beginning with mothers, Indigenous peoples and natural farmers – who do the work of:
- caring for people of every age and condition – children, elders, with disabilities;
- protecting and regenerating the land, the air and the water from poisonous chemicals which ruin the soil, the health of those who work it, the nutritional value of the food, and the climate;
- defending human rights and the natural world, risking their lives;
- surviving and resisting the climate change we did not cause which, following centuries of imperialist plunder, is endangering lives and livelihoods in the Global South, forcing millions to leave their home and all they hold dear.
3. SOME KEY FACTS
- Women and girls do more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work – a total of 12.5 billion hours a day. The market values unwaged work at $10.8 trillion but never suggests that those who do it should get any of it.Unpaid family carers (overwhelming women but also children) save governments billions (£193 billion per year in the UK alone).
- An international survey, What Mothers and Other Carers Want, heard from 1065 respondents from 50 countries. They said that the bond between mother and child is vital. Most mothers preferred to have more time for family and relationships, and to work outside the home only part-time. Mothers, other caregivers and the older or disabled relatives who rely on their care preferred to be at home not in institutions. 84% said caring deserves a care income. See full report here.
- Private industry, with the help of government, has transformed the concept of care into one of the most profitable industries. “The sick, elderly, disabled and poor people, parents and guardians, children without guardians, housing- and food-insecure people – all have become potential sources of profit.” Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Premilla Nadasen
- Between breastfeeding and subsistence farming, women feed the world and are the pillars of agroecology. Women produce most of the food consumed locally, making small farms central to poverty reduction, better health, gender equality and women’s empowerment. Small farms are more productive per acre than large farms and better for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. (Inclusion Pays: The Returns on Investing in Women in Agriculture, 2022)
- In Andhra Pradesh (AP), India, a non-profit organization, Rythu Sahikara Samstha, established by the AP government, is implementing chemical free Community Managed Natural Farming (CMNF), working in village clusters through women’s Self-Help Groups. Such regenerative work, if scaled up, can stop and even reverse climate change. Chief adviser, Dr Vijay Kumar, urges that farmers transforming the land in this way should not be entirely dependent on the market – they should be entitled to an income for their work for all humanity.
- Indigenous peoples who are less than 5% of the human population, support around 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. This indispensable work must be financially recognised.
- Land and environmental defenders, many of them women, are being murdered – at least 1,733 over the last decade – the vast majority with impunity. Over 45 per cent of deadly attacks worldwide are linked to extractive industries which destroy and pollute. They need recognition and protection.
- Globally governments spend $1.8 trillion a year subsidizing the most polluting industries –fossil fuels, agriculture, forestry, water, construction, transport, and marine capture fisheries. A much larger $5.9 trillion includeshidden subsidy of not paying for the deaths they cause and global warming. Global agricultural subsidies amount to $540 billion a year (expected to climb to $1.8tr by 2030). 87% of these are harmful to people and the environment. These subsidies must be redirected towards caring.
- The Just Transition policy framework, currently endorsed by the ILO, ITUC, EU and several governments, claims to be a post-carbon strategy centred on the needs of working-class communities, but omits caring work and the care needs of both people and nonhuman nature. Carers from low-income communities – the majority of the world’s working classes – thus remain overburdened and underpaid, while their key contribution to the (re)production of life on earth continues to be devalued.
- The US military, the world’s largest single polluter, creates 750,000 tons of toxic waste every year. 160 million people were killed in military conflict in the 20th century, more than 2m already in this century, the majority women, children and people of colour. Currently, between 38 and 60 million people are war refugees, half of whom are children while the arms industry is thriving.
- People around the world have been mobilizing to stop the genocide in Palestine, but also in Congo, Haiti, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Soudan … Governments and the greedy corporations they represent, starting with the arms trade, have not listened. They are on the war path. We must find a way to force them to stop or all our lives are in danger.
4. The international grassroots network calling for a care income includes:
INDIA
Nawa Chhattisgarh Mahila Samiti (NCMS) is an organization of mainly Adivasi and Dalit women in over 50 villages in Chhattisgarh. They are concerned about climate change – it’s 48°C in Chhattisgarh. People face mining companies which are polluting land and water, stealing water from the village areas, cutting down trees and depleting the resources the villagers depend on. Since 2024, NCMS has been working with Rythu Sahikara Samstha (RySS) in Andhra Pradesh to implement their chemical free Community Managed Natural Farming model. RySS has sent champion farmers from their women’s Self-Help Groups to Chhattisgarh and this has been extremely successful. They believe that natural farmers should receive a Care Income for their work. “Naya jamana aayega! A new age is coming!”
IRELAND
In 2024, a government referendum attempted to replace Article 41.2 of the Constitution on the work of mothers in the home with wording that diminished the State’s obligation to caring in the home and outside. Their amendment ignored Citizens Assembly’s recommendations for more, not less, support. The government proposal was voted down by 73.9% of the electorate.
They proposeto remove the only constitutional recognition of caring work that mainly women do and replace it with a patronizing, sexist and discriminatory proposal which assumes women will continue to do this work without any payment or other resources… and those of us with disabilities will be denied our right to the support we need to live with dignity and to be able to choose who provides our care and support… We say No to the slavery of invisible unwaged work and forced dependence! No to Victorian charity! No to the Workhouse or the Asylum! Global Women’s Strike, Ireland
PERU
The Global Women’s Strike in Peru works with the Domestic Workers Federation of Peru (FENTTRAHOP) and the Union of Remunerated and Unremunerated Workers in the Home (STRNRH). They were part of an international campaign which won ILO Convention 189 for domestic workers, guaranteeing fundamental rights. 189 has been ratified and legislation passed in a number of countries, but implementation is patchy. They are demanding a care income “for caring work in your home and the home of others”.
- The government must take account of our contribution. All workers must receive a living wage – a care income – including mothers and other carers.
- Workers who need to care for a relative must be entitled to paid time off. Without this right, women will always be disadvantaged when we go out to work.
THAILAND
The Community Women Human Rights Defenders Collective represents 19 sectors of community women – “the mothers, the carers, the Indigenous, the rural and urban poor, sex workers, the women resisting mining and mega-development projects, the migrant and refugee women, the women with disabilities, and those in Thailand’s Deep South living in the shadow of conflict”. They are demanding:
A New Constitution for Women’s Rights must recognize the caring work done in the home and on the land as socially and economically valuable work. Caring work performed by mothers, other primary family carers, and those who care for the land and the planet must be properly remunerated by the State… they are on the frontlines of both social and environmental justice. Statement for International Women’s Day 2025
UK
The International Wages for Housework Campaign which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike was first launched in England in 1972. It is based at the Crossroads Women’s Centre in London.
Safety First Wales, a coalition of sex workers, health professionals, church representatives, anti-poverty, anti-violence, migrants and trans rights campaigners, are demanding a care income for mothers “similar to the £1,600 a month given to young people leaving care – in recognition of the fact that most sex workers are working to support families.” (They mention that Hawaii recently passed a law to pay a basic income of $2000 a month to sex workers aiming to exit prostitution.)
Payday, an international network of men, based at the Crossroads Women’s Centres in London and Philadelphia, endorses the care income.
USA
A coalition led by the GWS and Women of Color GWS is demanding the reinstatement of Child Tax Credits, fully refundable, paid monthly to all regardless of immigration status, and paid directly to mothers/primary caregivers with no impact on other benefits and with no work requirements – raising children is work! It also supports Congresswoman Gwen Moore’s Worker Relief and Credit Reform Act, reintroduced In March 2025, which expands earned tax credits to unpaid caregivers “to honor the often-unrecognized work that our families and communities depend on”, as well as the work of students.
It is the welfare rights movement that laid the foundation for today’s Care Income Now! movement. As welfare rights leader Johnnie Tillmon said: “If I were president, I’d just issue a proclamation that “women’s” work is real work…I’d start paying women a living wage for doing the work we are already doing…And the welfare crisis would be over, just like that.”
In San Francisco, the Defense of Prostitutes Safety Project (of US PROStitutes Collective) is coordinating a Guaranteed Care Income pilot paying $2,000 monthly to 10 single mothers at risk of criminalization or having their children taken by social services.
INTERNATIONAL
The Just Transition and Care network, coordinated by a group of publicly engaged scholars in Europe and the USA, includes waged and unwaged workers and their organizations from 12 countries across Africa, Europe, Latin America and the USA. It demands a shift of focus in Just Transition policies toward a care-centred framework. Its policy brief Care work in the Just Transition. Providing for people and planet, includes the call for a care income.
SIGNATORIES
This proposal presented by the Global Women’s Strike (GWS) and Women of Colour GWS, which are coordinated by the International Wages for Housework Campaign and Black Women for Wages for Housework, has the support of the organizations in the GWS network listed under the different countries. They include: Care Income Now!, Community Women Human Rights Defenders Collective, English Collective of Prostitutes, Every Mother Is a working Mother Network, Give Us Back Our Children, Global Action Against Deportation, Legal Action for Women, Nawa Chhattisgarh Mahila Samiti, Payday Men’s Network, Queer Strike, Safety First Wales, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Support Not Separation, US PROStitutes Collective, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) as well as Stefania Barca, Gea Piccardi and Dimitris Stevis, coordinators of the international Just Transition and Care network.
For more information contact Nina Lopez and Selma James, Global Women’s Strike at gws@globalwomenstrike.net or Margaret Prescod, Women of Color GWS at la@allwomencount.net or call +44 20 7482 2496 or +1 215 848 1120