KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development will work towards incorporating the care economy into national development and economic planning to ensure its sustainability.

Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said many care activities done by women are often unpaid and unrecognised, leaving them with Iittle time to pursue opportunities and growth.

"According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, female graduates make up more than half of the current unemployment rate. This is one of the gendered effects of unpaid care and domestic work,” she said in her speech at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 50 Years of Progress Celebration here today.

She said in order to incorporate the care economy into national development, the barriers, data gaps, infrastructural requirements, legislative necessities and stakeholders need to be identified.

Nancy said vital and actionable data also needed to be attained for the Recognition, Reduction, Redistribution (3R) approach to be implemented to address the issue of unpaid care work done by women.

"For example, an important data in the average time spent on providing care for both men and women in households. From this data, we are able to identify care deficits and what areas are needed to be targeted by relevant policies,” she said.

The minister said it will also allow people to value the care economy in terms of time, expertise, opportunity cost and social merit.

Meanwhile, when asked about the sale of child-like sex dolls on an e-commerce platform, Nancy said the platform had already taken down the listing of sex dolls and the government was keeping an eye on the matter to ensure it would not happen again.

"They have already taken it down as they know people are unhappy about it. We are very cautious and making sure that no such thing happens again,” she said. — Bernama