Deeksha S. Bisht and Surbhi Jain*
There is a widespread perception that opportunities for women are limited by a set of underlying social and economic barriers. In India, this has been corroborated by the findings of the first of its kind survey in India – the Time Use Survey (TUS) released recently. The TUS, conducted in 2019, covers 1.4 lakh households across India, with personal interviews of household members above 6 years of age. It has presented several interesting numbers, pertaining to female versus male use of time in a day. Since India is witnessing a ‘demographic dividend’ and the ‘puzzle’ of low female participation in labour force is well-accepted, the findings of this survey are insightful for policymakers, academicians, households and all of us as individuals!
An average Indian female spends 17% of her time providing unpaid domestic services such as food preparation, cleaning, laundry, etc., whereas the average male spends only 2% of his time on the same. This is in contrast with the proportion of total time spent in employment and related activities, which is 18% for the average male and only 4% for the average female. Though this is understandable given the cultural demarcation of gender roles in our social context, it is far from being equitable and has implications for female education, employment and entrepreneurship.
The data, further, shows that around 75% of the time use composition is similar for men and women, spent in self-care and maintenance, leisure, socialization and learning, it is the rest 25% that is ‘coloured’ with gender, spent mostly on unpaid activities by females, and on paid activities by males. More than 80% of females participate in unpaid domestic services, spending an average of 5 hours daily, compared to 26% of males participating and spending an average of 1.5 hours.
If one looks at the data for working age population, i.e., aged 15-59 years, 71% of males participate in employment, compared to 22% of females. Moreover, the average time spent in employment activity by such males is around 8 hours, whereas for females it’s less than 6 hours. Further, 93% of employed females participated in unpaid domestic services, spending an average 4 hours on it – compared to 31% of employed males spending an average 1.5 hours on such services. This clearly implies that not only do women carry the double burden
of hearth and headquarter, they are also pressed for travel time, hence the choice set of jobs is also smaller. Going deeper, this may be leading to difference in work profiles with an adverse bearing on career outcomes, upward mobility in work and unrealized ambition or potential of women. A lot, therefore, needs to be done for the “she” being replaced by the “we” in domestic work.
In terms of participation in and time spent on learning (formal or informal education), the results are more encouraging, as 24% of males and 20% of females participate in learning activities, spending an average of 7 hours per day each. However, gaps in learning begin emerging with age and level of education, with 33% males versus 25% females of 15-29 years age group participating in learning. Greater equity in learning can be brought by promotion of secondary and higher education through public investment in education besides scholarships (such as PRAGATI for tech education), hostel facilities for girls, and promotion of skilling through programmes such as PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana which has trained/oriented more than 7.3 million candidates from 2016-2020, of which 40% are women.
Another interesting statistic is the participation of rural females in goods production for own final use. 29% of working-age rural females participate in this activity, spending an average 2 hours daily. In contrast, smaller proportion of working age males participate in production of goods for own final consumption (21%) but the average time spent for such males is much higher (more than 3 hours). The experience and need of the females to participate in such goods production can be channelized to producing for the market. Our rich cultural and agricultural heritage, with a plethora of GI tagged goods, can be a blessing here. Moreover, lack of job opportunities for educated women in rural areas is discernible from the finding that participation of rural females in employment does not increase much with increase in the level of education from primary level onwards. Empowering rural women through entrepreneurship opportunities in rural areas, thus, becomes all the more important.
Through initiatives like opening creches in Aanganwadis, reducing time spent on fetching fuelwood and water by Ujjawala Yojana and Jal Shakti Mission, precious time can be freed up from unpaid domestic services to entrepreneurship and job creation. Indeed, this has to be coupled with skilling and enterprise support through Skill India, Start-up India, Mahila E-Haat and Mudra yojana, among others, for “gramin mahila udyami” led rural development to materialize.
Needless to say, all this has to be accompanied by behavioural change at the ground level through initiatives such as “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”. As India marches ahead on its “sabka sath, sabka vikas” path of development, there is a lot of potential to be reaped through re-allocation of time use (which is the most precious resource, after all) between females and males, towards a level playing field for all aspirational Indians. A double-income economy can indeed unleash the true power of our demographic dividend – a reward South East Asian economies have already reaped. Let us not be left behind!
*The authors are IES officers, Department of Economic Affairs. Views expressed are personal.
