Rapid assessment on social protection access for care workers including migrant care workers in Andhra Pradesh

The ILO in India has been working consistently with its constituents to promote international labour standards and decent work for vulnerable workers, especially migrant workers. The care economy plays a critical role in promoting workforce participation at the destination and generating paid work opportunities for migrant workers in source countries. Migrant workers – especially migrant women – form a critical component of care infrastructures and workforces around the world (ILO 2024a)[1], yet remain vulnerable to being trafficked and exploited in the workplace. Social protection access at origin and destination play an important role in promoting choice; to migrate or not in search of decent work and well-being with dignity.

Vulnerability to irregular migration channels may be due to the absence of social security schemes catering to vulnerable workers or due to the lack of access to existing social protection schemes. The ILO defines nine main types of social protection: child and family benefits, maternity protection, unemployment support, employment injury benefits, sickness benefits, health protection, old-age benefits, invalidity/disability benefits, and survivors' benefits. These programmes, which aim to reduce poverty and vulnerability throughout a person's life, are typically financed by a combination of tax-financed and contributory social insurance schemes. Social protection related to care workers consists of benefits such as providing transfers in cash or in kind to people to cover for care contingencies costs. This can include maternity benefits, tax rebates, cash-for-care transfers, cash transfer programmes, amongst others.

The ILO provides technical assistance and advisory support to Member States by working with select line ministries/government departments at the central and/or state-level to identifying deficits in social protection measures for migrant care workers and explore opportunities for investments in skills development and skills recognition for women migrant care workers. Through the Migrant Care project, the ILO will continue to work towards strengthening Indian policy frameworks and institutional mechanisms with increased access to information and capacity to promote decent work for migrant care workers from India.

For detailed Terms of Reference (TOR), download the document TOR_RBC-HRDD Comms.

Send your proposals (technical proposal, budget and CVs of Lead Research Expert/s) to: [email protected] and [email protected]

Proposal deadline: Proposals with supporting documents must be submitted electronically on or before midnight on 21 December 2025.

[1] ILO 2024a, Migrant Workers in the Care Economy, October, Geneva