Together, they are changing their communities: How cooperatives are advancing decent work across South Asia

NEW DELHI (ILO News) - After long days in the fields, in private homes, preschools and community centres, women gather to discuss a different future. They are not discussing tomorrow's chores. Instead, they are asking a different question: What if we built something together? Together, they are identifying the care needs in their communities, exploring business ideas and building enterprises they will own and govern collectively. What begins as conversations among neighbours and co-workers is growing into a movement that is transforming unpaid and informal work into decent jobs, expanding access to affordable care services, and giving women greater voice, income and control over their futures.

The movement is particularly timely as the world marked the International Day of Cooperatives on 4 July 2026 under the global theme "Cooperatives for a Peaceful World". First celebrated by the International Cooperative Alliance in 1923 and officially recognised by the United Nations in 1995, the observance highlights the contribution of cooperatives to sustainable development, social inclusion and peace.

Expanding the care economy: Empowering women and their labour force participation in India

More than 250 women farmers gathered in Dahi, a small town in India's Dhar district, in Madhya Pradesh, on a warm afternoon in March 2026. Many have spent years balancing farm work with unpaid care responsibilities, leaving little time to expand their farms, earn a stable income or pursue new livelihood opportunities. That day marked the beginning of something different.

Under the International Labour Organization's Rise for Impact project, the women came together not simply to celebrate International Women's Day, but to imagine a new way of working through women-led care cooperatives.

On 8-9 April 2026, the project in collaboration with its partner agencies - the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, the Self Employed Women's Association, Action for Social Advancement and Samarthan - organized a workshop in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, bringing together women entrepreneurs from Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Participants identified the main care-related challenges faced by women and their communities in cotton-growing areas and explored opportunities for developing care cooperatives to address major issues specific to care needs and challenges in the cotton farming communities.

Women, community leaders, and local officials gather to celebrate International Women's Day 2026 at a event supported by the ILO's Rise for Impact Project in India.

By organizing collectively, women are establishing care cooperatives that will provide affordable, quality care services while creating new livelihood opportunities for women in their communities. Care cooperatives will help generate income for local care workers and enable more women to participate fully in the labour market while sharing responsibilities that have traditionally fallen on women alone. Encouraged by the response, many are now exploring producer cooperatives to strengthen their market access and incomes. The initiative aims to promote economic democracy and empower rural women through collective enterprise, reducing vulnerability to forced labour, addressing gender inequalities and helping ensure that children remain in school rather than entering work.

From invisibility to recognition: Transitioning from the Informal to the Formal Economy in India

Nearly 1,200 kilometres away, in Patna city of Bihar, India, another group of women workers are charting a similar path. For years, domestic and care workers in Bihar worked alone in private households, often with little recognition or security. Today, they are building something together-a worker-owned cooperative. Just like the women farmers in Madhya Pradesh, they also participated in training programmes under the ILO's Promoting Rights and Social Inclusion through Organization and Formalization (PRS) Phase II Project and decided to establish a worker-owned cooperative to provide care services and community food services. Their ideas are now becoming a reality. With support from the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), members have organized themselves into groups based on the services they plan to provide while the cooperative completes its formal registration process. Members have already launched Didi Ki Thali (Sisters' Plate), a community kitchen serving affordable, nutritious meals to workers and community members. Another group of domestic and care workers is now preparing to provide care services with reliable household care through a cooperative model. In Gaya district of Bihar, home-based workers, engaged in tailoring, beauty salon services, and bangle making, have expressed their interest to be part of this cooperative to enable them to build upon their livelihoods. These women are recognising that collective ownership could provide stronger livelihoods, fairer working conditions and a greater voice in the local economy.

Women workers, trade union representatives, and project partners gather during training in Patna, India, to support the formation of state-level cooperatives and strengthen the rights, organization, and social inclusion of women workers.

Leading the change: Cooperative federation steps up efforts to support care economy in Nepal

Across the Himalayas in Nepal, communities are also embracing cooperation to address one of society's greatest challenges - the growing demand for quality care. As Nepal's population ages, joint families become smaller and migration for work increases, the demand for affordable childcare, eldercare and home-based care is growing rapidly. Working with the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF), and the domestic workers unions, the ILO through the Empowered Women Prosperous Nepal (EPWN) and Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions projects are supporting the establishment of community-based care cooperatives that create decent jobs while expanding affordable care services for children, older persons and people requiring support. Currently, after a series of national and provincial consultations, the first batch of candidate trainers from NCF, Department of Cooperatives, Government of Nepal, and Cooperative federations are undergoing the Training of Trainers (ToT) program on Think.CareCOOP and Start.CareCOOP Training.

Following the July 2026 Training of Trainers programme, facilitators have introduced the model to 28 cooperatives and two domestic worker groups, reaching more than 600 people. The next phase will support new care cooperatives, model by-laws and a national assessment of the cooperative ecosystem for care services. These cooperatives are helping not only to redistribute unpaid care work, enabling more women to participate in education, employment and entrepreneurship, but also to enable recognition of rights, reward and representation of care workers.

Reimagining care through cooperation: Strengthening the care ecosystem through cooperatives in Sri Lanka

For years, preschool teachers, home-based care workers and domestic caregivers across Sri Lanka have provided essential services while working in largely informal conditions. Many lacked formal employment contracts, earned low wages and had limited access to social protection, despite growing demand for quality care services. At the same time, Sri Lanka is undergoing a profound demographic transition and there an increasing the demand for childcare, eldercare and home-based care services. Yet affordable, quality care remains beyond the reach of many families, while women continue to shoulder the majority of unpaid care responsibilities. Female labour force participation has remained around 30 per cent for two decades, and nearly six in ten economically inactive women cite household and care responsibilities as the main reason for staying out of paid employment.

Recognising these challenges, the Sri Lanka's Department of Cooperative Development, under the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security, and the ILO have been working together to encourage cooperative models for delivering quality care services. As part of the initiative, the country's National Assessment on the Provision of Care Services through Cooperatives and Other Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Entities has been completed with technical support from the ILO. It has laid down the evidence base for expanding community-based care services. A series of national consultations have been also organized in the last one year.

The Department also launched the model by-laws for care cooperatives, developed with the ILO support, providing a standard governance framework for new and existing cooperatives wishing to offer care services. A National Action Plan for Care Cooperative Development (2025-2030) now provides a roadmap for establishing, governing and scaling care cooperatives across the country. This will help create decent jobs in care economy, while improving access to quality, affordable care services and enabling women's workforce participation.

The results are already becoming visible. A women-led care cooperative supported by the Centre for Working Women now operates two community childcare centres in Ampara District. Forty-two preschool teachers completed training to strengthen cooperative management and childcare services in July 2026. Also, the Health Department Thrift and Credit Cooperative Society has launched the SUWASETHA initiative to pilot community-based care services through its nationwide network and plans to open the services in eight locations. The cooperative has amended its by-laws to enable the delivery of community-based care services. The initiative will also enable the retired skilled care workers and other care workers to earn livelihood through the cooperative.

Advancing decent work across South Asia

Although each initiative responds to different national priorities, they share one goal: placing people at the centre of development. Whether supporting women farmers in India, domestic workers in Bihar, care workers in Nepal or nursery teachers in Sri Lanka, cooperatives are creating opportunities where traditional labour markets often leave people behind. Through collective ownership, people gain more than income - they gain voice, dignity, and greater control over their futures.

For more than a century, the International Labour Organization has promoted cooperatives as democratic enterprises capable of achieving exactly that. Its work is guided by the Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193), the only international labour standard dedicated exclusively to cooperatives, which calls on governments to create enabling legal, policy and institutional environments where cooperatives can flourish as autonomous, member-owned enterprises.

This commitment was reinforced in 2022 when the International Labour Conference adopted the Resolution concerning Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy, recognising cooperatives as key actors in creating decent work, extending social protection and supporting sustainable development. The United Nations has also recognised the growing importance of cooperatives through successive General Assembly resolutions, including the proclamation of 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives.

Across South Asia, these international commitments are finding practical expression through initiatives that empower women farmers, organize informal workers, strengthen care systems and build resilient local economies.

For more information, please contact

Bharti Birla

Enterprise Development Specialist

ILO DWT for South Aisa.

Email: [email protected]