Incorporate caregiving infrastructure into urban planning

The care of all these segments requires supportive physical and human infrastructure, as it depends on human skill and care-friendly environments at home and outside.

These services can help families secure supplementary care when needed, especially as women continue to be the primary caregivers (Time Use Survey 2025). Similarly, physical infrastructure for care affects how easily primary caregivers can manage their daily responsibilities for their dependents while participating in economic activities. 

Also Read: Wholesome care: All hospitals should help their patients make living wills

Let us choose the latter against the backdrop of childcare and women’s increasing participation in the labour force, which rose from 23% in 2018 to 37% in 2023. Since 2019, women’s care work has remained over 300 minutes daily, while paid work increased by six minutes. Yet, India’s public and workplace infrastructure continues to take “care” for granted, assuming that the design of public spaces has no impact on it.

Unlike roads, railways and power grids designed to facilitate movement and commerce, the care infrastructure, including lactation rooms, changing stations and creches, remain inadequate or completely lacking in modern cities.

In metro stations, public parks, courts, police stations, marketplaces and most offices, this infrastructure is either non-existent or inadequate. Navigating streets, buses, railways and footpaths with strollers can be exhausting and impossible, with the hardships compounded for women with disabilities. 

Despite accessibility features, the National Building Code lacks lactation rooms, rendering public infrastructure inconvenient and exclusionary to breastfeeding mothers returning to work. Without supportive environments, World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on breastfeeding are difficult to follow for mothers returning to work.

As high as 81% of mothers said they were uncomfortable feeding their children in public due to the lack of proper breastfeeding places. Only 6% of Indian mothers feel comfortable breastfeeding in public despite legal protections. Without safe and hygienic spaces, many are forced to skip feedings or use storage closets and public toilets, which are neither safe nor dignified options.

An IIT Delhi study found that young mothers with infants are the least mobile in India. These design gaps subtly shape who feels welcome in public spaces and potentially push many women out of the workforce after childbirth, thereby weakening India’s economic engine. 

Also Read: Gender and Age: We need a female perspective on ageing populations

India must embed care infrastructure into city planning, workplace design and transportation networks. This requires institutionalizing a future-ready national care policy encompassing three key areas:

First, the National Guidelines that mandate lactation centres in health facilities must be extended to all public spaces, with standardized infrastructure like crèches, changing stations, incorporating safe and accessible design. This should be integrated into the National Building Code 2016.

Second, investments in human care infrastructure by professionalizing caregiving services and supporting women-led care enterprises.

Third, anchor these through a national care policy, linking care to labour, urban development and health, with adequate budgets and workplace protections. These should encourage affordable and high-quality care services from the private sector. Public campaigns normalizing male caregiving roles and reducing stigma around breastfeeding can strengthen care as a pillar of social equity and economic productivity.

Globally, countries are reimagining care and its supporting infrastructure. Spain and Colombia are integrating care into city planning. Singapore offers portable lactation pods that can be located and accessed through an app. The US has a legal requirement for lactation rooms, with reasonable lactation breaks for breastfeeding employees.

Also Read: India’s growth and urban planning: On different planets

The UK offers up to £2,000 per child annually to help cover registered childcare expenses. Argentina offers childcare allowances for unemployed or informal workers and childcare in the workplace. Germany offers care insurance to cover the costs of long-term care services.

India has the opportunity to craft its unique state-led model rooted in scale, local context and inclusion of families from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. This will allow us to shape a future of work where women are no longer forced to choose between caregiving and economic participation, but are supported in doing both with dignity and freedom.

As Nancy Folbre reminds us, “The work of care is not just an obligation, it is a form of social wealth creation.” It is time we designed systems that recognize and reward this critical labour as foundational to a just and thriving economy.

The authors are, respectively, associate partner and global lead, gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) practice; and senior manager, GEDSI, MicroSave Consulting.