A/68/293 designed to take account of factors, including child-rearing periods, that prevent women from making equal contributions. 53. States must ensure that women and men must have an equal right to family benefits 59 and these should be provided taking into account the resources and circumstances of the household. All women, including those in informal or atypical work, should be granted paid maternity leave and benefits for an adequate period and States must take steps to the maximum of their available resources to ensure that social security systems cover persons working in the informal economy. 60 6. Right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress 54. Lack of access to infrastructure and technology, including water and sanitation facilities, electricity and domestic technologies, exacerbates the unpaid care work of women living in poverty who have to dedicate a huge amount of time to domestic tasks such as fetching water or preparing foods. For example, a study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo showed that women with traditional stoves worked as much as 52 hours per week more than would be necessary with fuelefficient stoves. 61 55. Because unpaid care work is unrecognized and undervalued, Governments rarely make investments in the development and distribution of affordable technology that could significantly reduce the intensity and duration of women’s work within the home. Lack of access to such technologies undermines women’s well-being and reduces the time they can allocate to the more interactive part of care that would better improve the well-being of care recipients. 56. States must ensure that unpaid caregivers, in particular in deprived and remote areas, enjoy the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications 62 without discrimination. A core element of this right is that innovations essential for a life with dignity should be accessible to everyone, in particular marginalized populations (A/HRC/20/26, para. 29). 57. To this end, States should ensure the physical availability and economic affordability of inexpensive technologies, such as grain mills and fuel-efficient stoves, as well as the basic infrastructure, such as electricity, that could significantly reduce the amount and drudgery of women’s work within the home. In remote and isolated areas, access to technology for water delivery is particularly relevant. States must facilitate improved and sustainable access to water, particularly in rural and deprived urban areas; they also have an immediate obligation to ensure that women are not disproportionately bearing the burden of water collection. 63 __________________ 59 60 61 62 63 14/24 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 13 (a). Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 19, paras. 18, 19 and 34. Bourque and Kega-Wa-Kega, “Assessing the impact of fuel-efficient stoves in Minembwe”, Oxfam Germany, unpublished paper, 2011. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 15; and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 27. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 15, paras. 26 and 16 (a). 13-42271