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𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑁𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑙 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑒 Economy 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦. 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦: A typical day for 39-year-old Laxmi Karki from Surkhet began at 5 a.m., cleaning the house, offering prayers, preparing breakfast, and hurrying to make lunch. She lives with her in-laws, husband, son, and daughter, while her husband runs a hardware shop in Birendranagar market. After getting her children ready and dropping them off at school, she returned home and once again immersed herself in household chores, caring for her family tirelessly. Yet, because she didn’t earn an income, her work was often unrecognized, invisible, and undervalued. In 2024, she had the opportunity to join the care economy training organized by Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) held in Birendranagar. Naturally curious, she engaged actively in the sessions, likely drawn by the training’s relevance to her work-life balance.  Post- training, Laxmi realized that even someone who works at home can make a significant contribution to the economy in an indirect way. She learned that care work, whether done personally or delegated can generate income. This insight gave her the confidence, courage, and strength in her entrepreneurial journey. “I went to the training without any expectations, just thinking, ‘Let’s see what this is about.’ But once I started listening, I found it truly interesting,” shared Laxmi. For Laxmi, the concept of care economy was entirely new. As she puts it, “The work we do every day, especially tasks we spend so much time on, is often not considered part of the economy. It’s not monetized, and even though we invest so much time, it’s frequently undervalued or unrecognized. That’s an important point to understand when discussing the care economy-both paid and unpaid care.” Over the course of three days training in 2024, Laxmi understood that her everyday efforts could be turned into income. “We learned that the work we do can actually be converted into gains,” she reflects.  When she returned home, Laxmi told her husband that if they shared the care work, she could take on other tasks and earn an independent income. Her husband, understanding, readily agreed and helped redistribute household chores and family care. With Laxmi no longer managing everything alone, she saved time and used it to make pickles as a source of income. At the time, Laxmi was already running a small-scale pickle business, selling to her circle of friends. Gradually, she built connections and filled out an online form for a bootcamp. “That bootcamp was set up in collaboration with organizations mostly working in agriculture and livestock. I was the only one in that group in pickle business,” she shares. Through that platform, she gained exposure and became more aware of opportunities. “When I learned about the care economy, I talked about it with my friends and network. They told me, ‘You can take this forward, you can earn money from your work if you give it some time.’ That really motivated me,” she says. “After the training, my plans became much broader. It was very helpful to agree within the household to redistribute the unpaid care and domestic work and reduce my share, allowing me to contribute towards paid work to support my family.” From a practical standpoint, she notes that the investment to start a pickle business is minimal. “You just need to understand the market first, how much demand there is. Then you can gradually scale up,” she explains. Laxmi has since registered her business, received food authority approval, and even placed her products in outlets only for them to sell out faster than expected. “After registration, the products would sell before I could even restock so I have been busy with that,” she shares. Looking ahead, she plans to expand. “I’ve been taking orders through Facebook, and I have plans for the next one or two months,” she says. Her brand is called “Pradhan’s Ghar Ko Achar.” Beyond her business, Laxmi is also actively involved in the Lions Club and works as a freelancer with various social organizations. She conducts Montessori and leadership training and has already provided four to five pickle making trainings. “I have employed one helper for the pickle business,” she adds. “I now have a strong desire to grow further,” shared Laxmi. The training on Care Economy, organized by FNCCI and ILO with the support from joint programme Empowered Women Prosperous Nepal, was an eye-opener about the potential of care economy.