As Sri Lanka is struggling to emerge from the immediate dangers posed by cyclone Ditwah, the country is now confronting the harder and longer path of rebuilding. The storm did not only tear through houses, bridges and roads. It also disrupted daily lives and community routines, consequently placing new burdens on already vulnerable households. Recovery, therefore, must extend beyond repairing or rebuilding buildings. It must include the physical and mental well-being of people, the social structures that keep communities functioning, and also the fragile household and regional economies that were affected.

In this journey of recovery, women have an important yet overlooked position. Across the country, women have taken a leading role in holding families together before, during and after the disaster. They ensured that children were safe, tended to elderly relatives, managed household needs and kept community ties alive. Yet this labour, essential as it is, continues to be dismissed as a mere duty. Domestic and care responsibilities are taken for granted, viewed as something that women simply do rather than as a key pillar that supports the Nation’s social and economic stability.

This invisibility has a cost. Unpaid domestic and care work, primarily performed by women, is one of the largest unrecognised contributions to Sri Lanka’s economy. Their labour enables others to participate in the formal economy, which ensures that households function smoothly. However, because this work is unpaid and informal, it is undervalued in the national policy, ignored in economic planning and almost completely missing when benefits, support and relief measures are designed. After a disaster like Ditwah, this unpaid work becomes even more demanding, as women shoulder the emotional labour of keeping families stable while managing the practicalities of recovery.

If Sri Lanka is serious about rebuilding not only its infrastructure but also its social foundations, it must begin by recognising and supporting these women not merely through rhetoric but through policy.

In this regard, a recent development in India offers an instructive example. Several Indian States have introduced monthly cash transfers for women who are not formally employed. According to media reports, eligibility criteria vary, with filters such as age limits, income thresholds and exclusions for households with Government employees, taxpayers or owners of cars or significant land. While the amounts, ranging from Indian Rupees 1,000 to 2,500, may not be transformative on their own, the message is significant. These States acknowledge that unpaid domestic and care work has economic value. They recognise that supporting women strengthens families, communities and ultimately the national economy. These payments are unconditional, which means that these women do not have to prove productivity or seek employment to deserve support.

Sri Lanka too has discussed the pressing need to acknowledge and value unpaid domestic labour by women. For decades, policymakers, activists and economists have spoken about the millions of hours that women contribute without pay. However, these discussions have rarely translated into concrete action. The aftermath of Ditwah presents an opportunity to change that inertia. If we truly want to rebuild societies and economies from the ground up, the country must treat women’s unpaid work as a national concern rather than an invisible obligation.

This does not mean that Sri Lanka has to copy India’s model. A one-size-fits-all approach would be unwise given the differences in economic capacity, population size and administrative structures. However, Sri Lanka can take steps at both the national and Provincial levels. For example, the country can officially recognise unpaid care work as part of national economic planning, provide targeted relief, concessions or small payments to women who manage households, create programmes through Government institutions that support home-based self-employment for women who prefer earning independently rather than receiving benefits, offering training and digital access so that women can participate in the economy without needing to leave their care-giving roles, and strengthen community-level support systems which reduce the burden on women by improving child care, elder care and healthcare access. Such measures would not only help families recover from the recent disaster but also address long-standing gender inequalities in the labour force and household economies. Recognising women’s contributions is not charity. It is sound economic planning. When women are supported, households stabilise faster, communities rebuild more cohesively and the national economy strengthens from the bottom up.

As Sri Lanka charts its recovery path after Ditwah, we must remember that rebuilding is not only about replacing what was destroyed but also about rethinking what was neglected.