Fair Share for Health and Care Report | 26 Mar 2024

Source: DTE

Why in News?

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new report titled- Fair Share for Health and Care report, addressing the gender gap in global healthcare.

What are the Key Highlights of the Report?

• Gender Disparities in Health and Care Workforce:
  • Women comprise 67% of the paid global health and care workforce. Additionally, they perform an estimated 76% of all unpaid care activities.
  • This highlights significant gender disparities in both paid and unpaid care work.
  • Women in low- or middle-income countries could be USD 9 trillion better off if their pay and access to paid work were equal to that of men.
• Not Adequately Represented on Decision-Making:
  • Women are not adequately represented on decision-making tables. Women are overrepresented in lower-status roles, comprising the majority of nurses and midwives.
  • They are, however, underrepresented in leadership roles. Medical specialties are still dominated by men. Women made up 25% to 60% of doctors but between 30% and 100% of nursing staff across 35 countries.
• Underinvestment in Health Systems:
  • Chronic underinvestment in health and care work has led to a vicious cycle of unpaid care work, reducing women's participation in paid labour markets, hindering economic empowerment, and impeding gender equality.

• Devaluation of Caregiving:
  • Caregiving, primarily performed by women, tends to be undervalued, leading to lower wages, poor working conditions, decreased productivity, and a negative economic impact on the sector.
• Implications of Gender Pay Gaps:
  • Pay gaps limit women’s investment in their family and community, which is where they are likely to reinvest.
  • Globally, on average, 90% of women’s earnings are directed towards their families’ well-being, compared to only 30-40% of men’s.
• Higher Levels of Violence:
  • Women in healthcare disproportionately experienced higher levels of gender-based violence.
  • According to some estimates, a quarter of workplace violence across all sectors of the globe occurs in healthcare.
    • At least half of all employees in the healthcare sector have reported experiencing violence at some point in the workplace.
• Indian Scenario:
  • In India, women spent around 73% of their total daily working time (that is, the combined average time spent on unpaid and paid work recorded through national daily time-use surveys) on unpaid work, compared to men who spent around only 11% of their daily working time on unpaid work.
    • In the United Kingdom, nearly 4.5 million people took on unpaid work during Covid-19, 59% of whom were women, with nearly 3 million working simultaneously.
• Global Crisis of Care:
  • Decades of underinvestment in health and care work contribute to a growing global crisis of care.
  • Stagnation in progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) leaves billions without full access to essential health services, further burdening women with unpaid care work.
• Key Recommendations:
  • Improve working conditions for all forms of health and care work, especially for highly feminised occupations.
  • Include women more equitably in the paid labour workforce
  • Enhance conditions of work and wages in the health and care workforce and ensure equal pay for work of equal value.
  • Address the gender gap in care, support quality care work and uphold the rights and well-being of caregivers.
  • Ensure that national statistics account for, measure and value all health and care work.
  • Invest in robust public health systems.

What are the Government Initiatives to Deal with Gender Disparity?