A recent survey revealed that women spent 3 hours and 56 minutes on unpaid household chores daily, while men contribute just 24 minutes.
Published Mar 09, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 09, 2025 | 10:33 AM
The survey revealed that 81.5% of Indian women were engaged in unpaid domestic services, compared to only 27.1% of men.
Synopsis: Household chores that women take up are not considered labour, though they form a “second shift” for many working women. A policy reform is required to change this disparity.
The United Nations adopted a resolution at the 4th World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995 on a set of principles concerning gender equality.
Known as the Beijing Declaration — named after the host city — it “determined to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity.”
Among the set of principles was to “encourage men to participate fully in all actions towards equality”.
On Saturday, 8 March, the International Women’s Day was observed on the 30th year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Yet the principles adopted in the declaration still remain on paper.
Consider this for instance: A recent survey revealed that women spent 3 hours and 56 minutes on unpaid household chores daily, while men contribute just 24 minutes — a yawning difference of 3 hours and 32 minutes.
Similarly, women dedicated 47 minutes to caregiving, compared to only 13 minutes by men.
These alarming figures from the Time Use Survey (TUS) 2024 by India’s National Statistics Office exposed a deeply entrenched gender divide that continues to undermine women’s economic independence and social advancement.
The TUS 2024 revealed that 81.5% of Indian women were engaged in unpaid domestic services, compared to only 27.1% of men.
This disproportionate burden effectively amounted to an invisible subsidy to the Indian economy— work that remains unacknowledged in GDP calculations and economic planning.
The survey showed that only 20.7% of women participated in employment-related activities, compared to 60.8% of men.
“This isn’t a matter of choice but a direct consequence of the overwhelming domestic responsibilities thrust upon women,” said Debomita Mukherjee, a Research Scholar at the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Hyderabad.
“What we’re seeing is essentially a forced allocation of women’s time,” said Mukherjee. “The time women ‘save’ from paid work isn’t free time — it’s forcibly redirected to unpaid labour that props up the entire economic system without compensation.”
The researcher highlighted another crucial issue missing from the TUS 2024 report—the double shift that many women undertake.
“While this report talks about the amount of time that women invest in unpaid labor and opens up a larger discussion about domestic work, it does not address the reality of the double shift,” Mukherjee told South First.
“Women who are engaged in paid labour are also expected to return home and perform another shift of unpaid work—childcare, care for the elderly, cooking, and other domestic responsibilities. This unpaid labour is in addition to their already precarious and underpaid jobs in the labour market,” she added.
She further emphasised the gendered nature of labour, explaining how many women are employed in unorganised, feminised, and low-paying sectors such as domestic work, construction, and home-based industries.
“Women in high-paying jobs often have domestic helps to manage their household responsibilities, but working-class women must perform both paid and unpaid labour,” she pointed out.
“Many so-called homemakers are also earning ₹300-₹400 daily through informal, home-based work like bangle-making or tailoring, yet, it is not recognised as income. This points to a larger systemic issue where both their paid and unpaid labor remain invisible.”
Rural women faced double discrimination—less access to paid work and a heavier unpaid workload. Women spent more time on unpaid domestic work than their urban counterparts (241 vs. 232 minutes).
Additionally, rural women were significantly more engaged in production of goods for their own use (21.6%) compared to their urban counterparts (6.2%).
“This creates a cycle of economic dependence that’s nearly impossible to break without systemic intervention,” said Mukherjee.
Perhaps most troubling was the survey’s comparison with the 2019 data, showing that women’s participation in unpaid activities remained unchanged over five years (83.9% in 2024 vs. 84.0% in 2019).
Women’s participation in paid activities increased only marginally from 17.1% to 20.6% %—a pace of change that would take decades to achieve parity.
“The minimal progress we’re seeing points to deep-rooted gender biases that restrict women’s entry into the labor market,” explained Mukherjee.
“Cultural expectations that women’s time belongs to the household rather than themselves continue to dominate both rural and urban settings”
The leisure and development penalty
The burden of unpaid work directly impacted women’s personal development and leisure. Women received only 2 hours 28 minutes of leisure time, compared to men’s 2 hours 49 minutes.
Similarly, women spent slightly less time on learning and skill development (1 hr 24 min vs. men’s 1 hr 34 min).
While both genders reported similar time spent on self-care (approximately 11 hr 50 min including sleep), it masked a fundamental inequality: men’s waking hours are predominantly spent on paid work or leisure activities of their choice, while women’s time was largely dictated by unpaid responsibilities.
The gender disparity calls for a policy reform to:
“Until household responsibilities are equally distributed, women will remain at both an economic and social disadvantage,” said Mukherjee.
“This isn’t merely a women’s issue—it’s an economic imperative that affects India’s overall productivity and social progress,” she added.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
