The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Women continue to spend more than three times the time spent by men in doing unpaid domestic work for household members, even as the number has reduced by 10 minutes compared to five years ago, according to Time Use Survey 2024 (January-December) released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday (February 25).
Women spent 289 minutes a day in unpaid domestic services for household members as opposed to 88 minutes spent by their male counterparts, as per the survey. In 2019, women spent 299 minutes a day, while men spent 97 minutes.
Women also spent significantly more time than men in daily caregiving services for household members. Female participants in caregiving activities spent about 140 minutes in a day, compared to 74 minutes spent by male participants aged 15-59 years. This means, 41% of women in the age bracket participated in caregiving for their household members, while only 21.4% men participated in such activities.
“This corroborates the Indian social fabric wherein most of the caregiving responsibilities for household members are borne by the females of the household,” the ministry stated in the press release.
In total, the share of unpaid domestic services spent by women aged from 15-59 years remained high at 305 minutes in 2024, even though it was 10 minutes less from 315 minutes spent in those activities during 2019.
Meanwhile, 75% of men and only 25% of women in the age group 15-59 years participated in employment and related activities in a day on an average in 2024, the survey showed. Despite the low figure for women in this category, this was up from 21.8% participation of women in the age group during 2019.
National Time Use Survey 2024. Source: Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation
The Wire has earlier reported on how the unpaid household burden is one of the major reasons behind women’s lower participation in the labour market. Even women who are actively engaged in the workforce often carry a significant burden of unpaid care responsibilities, such as childcare and household chores, which can impact their ability to fully participate in the labour market.
The value of care contributions regularly goes unaddressed in India, many surveys have shown.
Overall, around 83.9% women participated in unpaid activities in a day in 2024, almost the same as 84.0% in 2019. For paid activities, women’s share increased 20.6% in 2024 from 17.1% in 2019. On the other hand, 45.8% of men participated in unpaid activities in 2024, up from 43.9% in 2019, while for paid work, their share increased to 60.5% from 54.8% in the previous survey.
The Time Use Survey (TUS) measures time dispositions by the population, gender-wise, on different activities. The main objective of this survey, according to the ministry, is to measure the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities.
The first National Time Use Survey was conducted in 2019. The present TUS conducted during January-December 2024 is the second such survey by the ministry.