Comments by Juthathip Jongwanich, on Elderly Caregiving: A Gendered Analysis on Caregivers’ Labor, Time-use, and Well-being

Juthathip Jongwanich: The issues concerning gender, unpaid care providers, and the well-being outcomes of these providers are crucial in developing countries, including India. Due to societal norms, unpaid care work is extensively observed in these contexts, with services often dominated by women. In addition, the costs, particularly well-being costs, associated with unpaid care providers, as well as factors that could potentially mitigate these costs, have not been systematically explored in the literature. The authors aim to address these issues by using the city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India, as a case study, during July and August 2022. The key findings are as follows. First, the adverse effects of caregiving on women were found to be greater than those on men, particularly regarding labor force participation, self-employment, wage employment, employment hours, self-care/socializing time, and the likelihood of life satisfaction and happiness. Second, when gender norms, access to household durable goods,...