Distribution of functions reaches Congress: Delegates will debate economy, licensing and places of care

Representatives of the ruling party dusted off the project to build a national care system presented by the Alberto Fernández government a year after the announcement. This Tuesday, along with 45 other initiatives, the draft will be discussed in two congressional commissions for the first time, with the aim of achieving a consensus text that considers a fair distribution of tasks for reaching the venue. On behalf of the ruling party, they believe that time is under pressure and they want to drop a threshold on the issue before the end of Fernandez’s term, which is part of a long-standing feminist agenda. He explains that in the background there is a debate on whether to respect redistribution. Social organizations emphasize their ability to stimulate the economy.

On topics such as extending maternity and paternity leave, the equitable redistribution of care functions and the creation of care spaces, discussions starting this week will certainly revolve around the budget issue. This was exactly the stepping stone in the initiative’s path since it entered Congress on May 2, 2022.

The lack of precision regarding its financing raised many doubts about its viability within the framework of the existing strict fiscal discipline. Legislators who have been campaigning for its approval were able to exert more force after the issue rose in importance at the beginning of the month, when it appeared the project had been shelved for a full year. will be dealt with first in the legislative commissions of Work, Welfare and Social Security and Women and Diversity of the Chamber of Deputies, chaired by Vanessa Siele and Monika Macha, respectively. They will start with expanding existing licenses and keep pro-government and opposition projects alike under review.

Items (including licences) needed to materialize the project, as calculated by the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity represent 0.12% of GDPi almost 750 million dollars, To this should be added 8.5% of the currently allocated public works budget. Representatives of the ruling party understand that moving forward to close the historical gap in the unequal organization of unpaid work, an aspect that is socially and economically invisible, It can also help redistribute wealth more equitably.

“Before talking about cost, you have to think about the sense of ideal. We’re talking about life itself, It’s a cost women are facing and caregiving is still a class privilegeBecause the children with the most resources are the ones who are most likely to go to a care place between the ages of 0 and 2, for example,” he explained. Busted Paulina Calderón, Secretary of the Ministry of Equality and Diversity Policies, Regarding the budget, he stressed that the work is being done “in a continuous manner” together with the Ministry of Economy in the framework of the ministerial table which brings together 15 agencies of the national executive branch To debate and plan policies that contribute to the issue. According to parliamentary sources, pro-government representatives stated on more than one occasion that they wanted to complete the project with only the essentials that a policy of this magnitude implies.

Citizens’ organizations that have supported the initiative since inception agree with the proposal of the portfolio. In this sense, Natalia Gherardi, executive director of the Latin American Team for Justice and Gender, commented: “The distribution is socioeconomically unfair because it places a disproportionate burden on the poorest women, who do not have access to private paid services to contribute to addressing the care needs of families and what this does is reproduce poverty across generations and deepen conditions of exclusion for women, girls and adolescents does”.

A recent report by the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) has also thrown light on this topic. Using data from the latest survey on the living conditions of children and adolescents from the Ministry of Development as a reference, she highlighted that “due to the inadequate supply of parenting, teaching and care services, Only 59% of children under the age of 5, who are in the poorest 20% of the population, attend these types of placeswhile in the richest fifth of the population this figure rises to 83.6%.

key to care project

The government proposed to move towards a model in which public sector, private sector, family and community organizations co-exist. Among its most outstanding points, it sets forth the expansion of parental leave (the leave goes from 90 to 126 days for pregnant women and from 2 days to 90 for non-pregnant women), services and The infrastructure promotes the expansion of offering care and paid care work. At this point, the most recent settlement stands as precedent. Signed by the government, the CGT, UIA and Camarco, following an amendment to Article 179 of the Labor Contract Law, which obliges all companies with more than 100 employees to guarantee a place for care.

The initiative also recognizes the right to care Monottributistas, Social Monottributistas and AutonomousThrough the creation of an allowance that implies monthly payment of minimum vital and mobile wages for pregnant people, non-pregnant people and adoptions.

INDEC’s latest report on time use, published in November 2022, shows the importance of moving forward with this initiative. The gap between men and women nearly doubles when it comes to care work in the country. AleWomen devote an average of 6 hours 31 minutes to unpaid work, while men only 3 hours 40.

“What we want is at least the treatment that he deserves. It is part of the agenda that women and diversity owe us, but I recognize that there is some resistance due to privileges that some may lose.“Calderón, while trying to assess the situation, stressed that a certain sector of the opposition could take in this regard. The official entered the government with the project already drawn up, as it was presented by Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta. It was with Minister Aileen Mazina. “There are many things that we believe can be improved and hope that opinions and contributions from deputies will improve some points in particular But we believe that it is good, that it fulfills all the tasks that it has done with respect to care in the executive,” he said.

The initiative was born out of collective action. A Commission of independent experts for its drafting and subsequently enriched by interactions with various sectors and social actors. Gherardi, one of the people called for the task, stressed that “that doesn’t mean it’s not a proven project that could get more federal landings in public policy.” Thus, he believed it was important to move forward in the discussion of the project with respect to other issues.”As perspective of disability which is not fully collected and needs to be strengthened. Federal and innovative community organizations participated.

Within this framework, the anticipated Busted: “Majority building is the work we started, We believe we can reach a level of consensus with the opposition, This is a project meant to make room for progress in one of the central issues of social organization, so it is our intention to move the discussion forward and create initiatives that support, prioritize and materialize care actions. Can do.”

financial contribution

There are many international organizations that relate care policies to development and job creation. It was one of the topics most talked about in the XV conference Regional Conference for Women of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) held in Buenos Aires, where various UN agencies presented their latest studies on the matter.

For example, ELA worked with UNICEF on a study that suggests such a project “Will allow generation of jobs linked to the labor economyBut it will also contribute to freeing up the time of women who today devote themselves to unpaid caregiving so that they can participate more widely in the labor market”, according to Gherardi, who added: “This economic development policy makes sense because it is what will allow us to have more workers contributing to the system”.

where it is highlighted “If 2% of GDP is invested in care industries, the effect on employment is between 2.4% and 6.1%, and the increase in women’s employment rate is between 3.3% and 8.2%”. On the other hand, According to calculations by the McKinsey Global Institute, if women had equal participation in the economy as men, the impact on Latin America’s GDP could be as much as US$2.6 trillion, or an increase of 34% of annual regional GDP.