On February 1, 2026, the Finance Minister presented the proposal Union Budget 2026-27 together with that Gender Budget Statement (GBS). The GBS recorded its highest ever allocation of ₹5,00,878.73 crore in FY27, with its share in total expenditure rising to 9.36%. Institutional coverage has also expanded: the number of ministries, departments and UTs reporting gender allocations has increased to 58, indicating greater mainstreaming of gender budgeting as well as increasing emphasis on care-related programs. This is the finding of three consecutive economic surveys (2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26) that highlighted care infrastructure as central to women’s empowerment.
It is worldwide 5R framework (Recognizing, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work and rewarding and representing paid care work) has increasingly emerged as a cornerstone of the solution Burdens of unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW) for women.
Early last year, India released its Time Use Survey 2024and offers a sobering snapshot of how men and women spend their time. While participation in employment and related activities increased between 2019 and 2024 for both women and men, women’s participation in unpaid domestic services is still almost three times that of men, and their participation in unpaid care is about twice as high. As a result, despite modest employment gains, women spend nearly 4.7 hours a day on unpaid domestic and care work. In India, both budget emphasis and time use surveys represent an important step towards recognizing unpaid care work. However, recognition alone is not enough. Equally important is reducing the amount of care required, especially in… Contexts of the Global South B. in India, where UCDW goes beyond home care to also include water and fuel collection, cooking, cleaning and work on family farms.
Against this backdrop, GBS 2026-27 reflects a renewed focus on infrastructure-led measures Reduction of UCDW. Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin, reported under Component B, received an allocation of INR 2,959.58 crore in FY27 BE, marginally higher than INR 2,904.36 crore in FY26 BE, thereby strengthening access to sanitation as a time-saving measure. More importantly, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) witnessed significant expansion with allocations increasing by 61.27% from INR 20,476 crore in FY26 BE to INR 33,022.96 crore in FY27 BE. Since August 2019, JJM coverage has expanded from 3.23 crore households (17%) at launch to 15.74 crore households (81.31%) by November 20, 2025. Evidence from SBI Research and the World Health Organization highlights the gender benefits of this expansion, including a reduction in the time women spend fetching water, increased participation in agricultural and related activities, and a total daily time saving of more than 5.5 million hours. In parallel, allocations for LPG connections to poor households under Component A recorded a BE-to-BE increase, suggesting an emphasis on clean cooking as a mechanism to reduce period poverty and women’s health risks.
In addition, the budget also signals a more cautious shift towards the redistribution of care. Under Mission Shakti, the Samarthya component saw a modest increase, maintaining continuity and not a major expansion. That’s where it lies Earnings budget describes the expansion of institutional childcare under the Palna sub-component through 1,000 functioning Anganwadi-cum-Crèches supporting approximately 20,000 children aged 6 months to 6 years. These measures have the potential to shift responsibility for childcare from households to the state. Likewise, announcements to expand training for health professionals and carers, particularly in the area of aged care – supported by phased spending of ₹980 crore over three years – indicate an emerging recognition of the associated need for care demographic aging. These steps suggest a gradual expansion of India’s care policy: from easing household burdens to opening avenues for more formalized, remunerated care work. Overall, investments can also reflect the “reward principle” by expanding paid care responsibilities – most visibly through institutional child care and the increasing emphasis on trained caregivers. For frontline workers such as: ASHA and Anganwadi workersthis expansion potentially increases the size and scope of paid care work; However, issues surrounding wages, job security and formal recognition remain unresolved.
At the subnational level, the reward principle is increasingly articulated through the expansion of Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCTs) is aimed at women. However, whether UCTs serve as a reward for care or as an income replacement depends on the context. For UCTs to act as a reward, the infrastructure and service deficits that increase the burden of care on women must first be addressed. In practice, Many UCTs are designed to support income for women’s exit from paid work, PLFS data shows almost 49% of women remain outside the workforce due to gender-specific norms of domestic and care responsibilities. In such contexts, cash transfers risk stabilizing women’s exclusion from paid work rather than transforming the organization of care. Where the scope of care-reducing infrastructure and care-redistributing services remains limited, UCTs can alleviate short-term consumption pressures without changing underlying time-use inequalities. UCTs alone cannot increase unpaid care work; Only when embedded in broader investments in care can they begin to shift deep-rooted time-use inequalities.
Taken together, the 2026-27 Budget and recent policy interventions represent significant progress in recognizing, reducing, redistributing and even rewarding unpaid care and domestic work. But enabling women’s economic empowerment – the central goal in tackling unpaid care – cannot rely on fiscal spending alone. Representation is the institutional bridge: without women’s participation in policy-making and budgeting, as well as in leadership and change processes, there is a risk that care investments will not match the scope and value of their work. Operationalizing the fifth R is therefore crucial so that care investments lead to sustainable increases in women’s economic participation.
Harshita Kumari is an analyst at The Quantum Hub. She holds a master’s degree in gender and development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She lives with an invisible disability and works on social policy issues, with a focus on gender and disability inclusion, and is also involved in emerging policy areas such as clean energy. Her writing has been published in leading Indian newspapers. Details can be found here.
Sonakshi Chaudhary is Deputy Director of Policy and Partnerships at The Quantum Hub and has over a decade of experience in gender, labor and social protection. Her work includes research, policy advice and communications with a focus on women’s economic empowerment, digital inclusion and gender-based violence. During her tenure at the Economic Advisor Office of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, she advised government and development partners on translating insights into policy design and implementation, including contributing to national level initiatives. She also led research and editorial work on women’s labor force participation in India, including a podcast examining structural constraints on women’s work. Her writing and commentary has appeared in The Hindu, The Indian Express, Mint, Hindustan Times and Outlook.