Published Paper Details:

Caregiving is an essential yet undervalued labour, disproportionately shouldered on women across the globe. In India, female caregivers in familial, community or institutional contexts, bear the overwhelming burden of unpaid or underpaid care work, often under conditions of chronic stress, economic insecurity and social invisibility. While public discourse on gender equality has grown in recent years, the abuse, discrimination and exploitation faced by female caregivers remains a severely under-researched area. This paper addresses this critical gap by examining the multidimensional challenges faced by women in caregiving roles, focusing on the human rights violations they endure, and outlining policy measures to safeguard their safety, dignity and wellbeing. The primary objective of this paper is to analyze how systemic neglect in policy frameworks perpetuate gender-based inequality in caregiving labour, and to propose actionable, rights-based policy interventions. In doing so, it emphasizes the urgent need for comprehensive legislation, social protection mechanisms and mental health support tailored to female caregivers. This paper also explores the intersection of caregiving, revealing how marginalized women are at greater risk of physical abuse, emotional neglect and economic deprivation in caregiving contexts. The study is anchored in feminist theoretical framework, which examines the gendered division of labour, and sociological theories to understand how the meanings attached to caregiving roles shapes women's identities and perpetuates power imbalances. Using a mixed method approach based on secondary sources, the research evaluates qualitative accounts from case studies in existing literature to explore the lived realities of female caregivers. By bridging empirical evidence with theoretical insights, the paper calls for a shift from welfare-based to rights-based policy frameworks, positioning caregiving as a matter of social justice, gender equality and human rights.