Two episodes, apparently unconnected. The first: a two-year-old baby, named Dante, falls asleep in the “stuffed area” of the garden “De paso, paseo”, in La Plata, where his parents dropped him off every day to go to work. Nobody noticed the baby snoring among the rabbits, so when closing time came they closed the place… with Dante inside. His Dad arrived late to look for him and found the baby locked up. They had to call the fire department to free him. And it could have been a tragedy, yes. The second episode: from November 7 to 11, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) and UN Women, the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean took place. Its theme? The care society interviewed for what it is: a horizon to achieve development with gender equity. Beyond the length of its name and the -if you will- complex concepts at stake, the translation is very simple, because what it is about, ultimately, is to create -for Dante, for Dante’s grandparents, for Dante’s relatives and for those people close to Dante who t have any disease or disability that warrants it – a support system. Of aid. In Argentina, this project already exists. It is called Caring in equality and was presented to Congress in May of this year. But since then he has been sleeping in the three commissions that should treat him. Almost like Dante, among the stuffed animals.
What is that project about? Simple: of a complex plot that combines spaces, laws, actors and services. And this ranges from the creation of infrastructure such as nurseries and care spaces (currently scarce in Buenos Aires, almost non-existent in some provinces) to extended licenses for parents (who in some cases have only two days to receive a newborn), a broader and more qualified offer of care services and many other things that today still sound like a chimera. Or, at least, to privileges only suitable for ultra-developed economies such as those of the Nordic countries. However, various experiences carried out so far in the region show that the care sector can also be a driver of economic development.
WHO IS IN CHARGE OF CARE? As was reflected during the four days that the conference lasted, the experiences of successful public care policies exist and are not only European. There are them in Uruguay, in Mexico, in Costa Rica, in Chile. With a greater or lesser degree of development, the initiatives so that care ceases to be a “problem” of families and becomes a responsibility of all (since, ultimately, any society that wants to perpetuate itself over time needs people who care for children, the sick, the elderly) advance in all Latin America. Especially after, As the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted, it became clear that care is at the center of all societies. The problem is that all those hours spent taking children to and from school, accompanying elderly mothers and fathers to the doctor, checking homework, preparing food or doing the shopping are, in reality, invisible hours. Or rather: invisible hours, transparent time that someone – almost always a woman, it doesn’t matter if a mother, a grandmother or a lady hired for this purpose – contributes without anyone taking care of paying it. Precisely for this reason, for some years now, in several countries around the world, some economists have set out to transform the contribution of women to the economies of their countries into hard cash. And the results were shocking.
THE VALUE OF WHAT IS “NOT WORTH”. This is how it was concluded that women generate, with their unpaid work hours, between 15 and 28% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of various countries in the region. As an ECLAC document points out, “currently, 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean calculate the monetary contribution of unpaid work in households. Some of the approximations carried out in the region quantify that this type of work has a value of between 15.9% and 27.6% of GDP. On average, 74% of this contribution is made by women”. And, as was demonstrated in the recent conference, with the current scenario of work overload and exhaustion for women, together with the growing demand for care that a society as aged as ours will imply in the future, the most logical path is to make care an engine for a change that, far from being cosmetic, is truly transformative.
Precisely for this reason, during his speech at the conference, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, the executive secretary of ECLAC, assured that “when we think of the very significant increase in the demand for care that is expected due to the aging of the population, it is clear that fiscal policies in the region will have a very important challenge in the coming years, which is to open the fiscal space to provide the additional resources necessary to finance the expansion of care networks”. A fact between ironic and cruel in this whole issue? To implement a comprehensive national care system in Argentina (SINCA), it would suffice for the State to decide to review some tax exemptions. In fact, if only judges began to pay Profits, the system would already have funds.
But also, the highest representative of ECLAC He emphasized that “we are at a turning point as countries and as a region. This is not a time for gradual, timid change, but for bold, transformative policies that really move the needles of development.” In this sense, the creation of a national, universal and free care system would allow, as is already the case in Uruguay, care work not only to stop falling on families but also to generate quality jobs, truly safe care spaces and, above all, a new vision on this matter: that of co-responsibility. Until then, the Dantes from Argentina will continue as before, dreaming among stuffed animals while the firefighters arrive.
