In Sri Lanka, unpaid care work is overwhelmingly performed by women and remains largely excluded from national accounting systems (DCS, 2020), despite its substantial contribution to both the economy and society. This invisibility masks the extent to which the economy relies on the unpaid labour of women across ethnic and class divisions, making it imperative to measure and understand the disproportionate burden they carry. Recognising, reducing, and redistributing UCW through public services, social protection policies, and the promotion of shared household responsibilities are crucial for advancing gender equality and sustainable socio-economic development
Acknowledgments
The Women and Media Collective extends its heartfelt gratitude to The Asia Foundation for supporting us in carrying out this research.
We wish to express our special appreciation to our partner organizations for their invaluable collaboration during the data collection process:
• Anuradhapura – Rajarata Praja Kendraya
• Batticaloa – Suriya Women’s Development Center
• Colombo – National Forum for Women with Disabilities
• Hambantota – Women’s Development Federation
• Jaffna – THOLAMAI.V
• Kurunegala – Women’s Resource Center
• Nuwara Eliya – Women’s Solidarity Front
Without their dedication and commitment, data collection and interviews at household level would not have been possible.
We also extend our sincere thanks to Suresh Amuhena for data tabulation and Thilini de Alwis for writing the analysis
Key Takeaways:
Women remain deeply engaged in both direct and indirect care throughout their lives—caring for their own children, children in other households, community members, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. These care roles evolve across the life course. Younger women are drawn early into domestic responsibilities, while older women increasingly take on responsibilities in household management and farming. This pattern highlights the lifelong and shifting nature of unpaid care work performed by women. Across age and marital status categories, care for one’s own children is most prevalent among individuals of parenting age, particularly married and formerly married
women. Elder care responsibilities, meanwhile, are more common among those under 59, indicating that the burden of caring for dependents falls heavily on young and middle-aged women in Sri Lanka.
Women play a critical yet often undervalued role in sustaining the welfare of their communities through unpaid care. Their contributions extended beyond sharing the burden of direct and indirect care work to include fostering social cohesion and maintaining cultural practices. Women’s unpaid community care work reflects broader social obligations and communal support systems. These efforts, often involving emotional labour and social engagement, are vital to community resilience. Qualitative interviews reveal that these relationships also help women manage the heavy demands of caregiving. The high rates of participation in community care also reflects a significant gap in formal care infrastructure, placing a dual burden on women both within and beyond their households.
Notably, the boundaries between care work and leisure can sometimes blur. Activities such as visiting relatives or attending religious events, categorised as community care in this report, may also serve as moments of joy or relaxation. When asked about activities they enjoy, while women identified cooking, others found it an unquestionable daily activity, highlighting the complex emotional dimensions of care work.
The data also points to structural barriers. The uneven geographical distribution of day care services for children and the predominance of private providers limit access, particularly for lower-income families. This underscores the need for comprehensive public investment in early childhood care across all regions to ensure equitable support for caregivers.
Overall, the distribution of women’s time underscores the essential role of their unpaid labour in sustaining households and communities. Yet, this work often goes unrecognised leading to severe time poverty, restricting women’s opportunities for paid employment, education, and leisure. The persistence of traditional, patriarchal norms around family roles and caregiving, despite some emerging positive shifts, further entrenches these inequalities.
Addressing these challenges demands urgent action. The lack of accessible, reliable care infrastructure and minimal state support forces women to make difficult trade-offs between income generation, caregiving, and personal development. There is a greater responsibility from both the state and markets in sharing the burden of care through expanded public services, social protection, and infrastructure. Only through such measures can care responsibilities be more equitably distributed, enabling women to fully participate in economic and social life.
Key Recommendations:
Recognise:
- Strengthen the care work data ecosystem
- Institutionalise regular time use surveys
- Promote interdisciplinary and intersectional research
- Support mixed methods approaches
Reduce:
- Transform gendered norms through cross-sectoral interventions
- Invest in time- and labour-saving technologies
- Strengthen the resilience of care systems in crisis contexts
Redistribute
- Redistribute care responsibilities to the State through social policy and public investment
- Improve access and quality of public care services
- Engage the private sector to increase commitment for care
- Promote shared responsibility within households and communities
Represent:
- Ensure inclusive representation in decision making
- Raise awareness through participatory and inclusive approaches
- Support and prioritise women’s collective action and leadership
Respond:
- Strengthen legal protections and labour rights for care workers
- Advance gender-responsive social protection for caregivers
- Reform labour laws to support care redistribution
- Institutionalise gende-responsive budgeting for care