Sep 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)
How Many Minutes do You Work at Home?
Patriarchy shows up not only in the frequency of violent crimes such as rape, dowry-killing and acid attacks but also in more anaemic statistics, such as the gender-wise time spent on household chores. American men do a fair share of household work, while Indian men expect their wives to do it all.That is the key message from an OECD survey earlier this year. Domestic work is unpaid work. Indian men spend just about 19 minutes every day on domestic work compared to 161 minutes by their peers in the US, and a rich-country average of 139 minutes. Indian women spend about 352 minutes a day on household chores compared to 248 minutes by their counterparts in the US. True, the findings, based on National TimeUse Surveys, are not strictly comparable, given that the data for India is based on CSO’s survey way back in 1999, but are still useful in designing public policy.
Unpaid and invisible household work is often foisted on women in India, particularly for those at the lower income levels.
The CSO survey had a pointer. It showed that men in India dedicated themselves to “talking, gossiping and quarrelling”, surprisingly categorised under “personal care and self-maintenance”, spending almost eight hours in a week on this activity. Rural women also have tougher chores such as carrying water, collecting and carrying firewood or processing food stuff by hand. It raises the physical intensity of their work, not captured in the time-use surveys.
Fewer women do paid work today. Data show a decline in female workforce participation at an annual rate of 1.72% between 2004-05 and 2009-10. To bring more women into the workforce, we need to understand their problems in balancing their work-life responsibilities. Surely, men, and not just paid help, can take on a larger share of domestic chores.
Unpaid and invisible household work is often foisted on women in India, particularly for those at the lower income levels.
The CSO survey had a pointer. It showed that men in India dedicated themselves to “talking, gossiping and quarrelling”, surprisingly categorised under “personal care and self-maintenance”, spending almost eight hours in a week on this activity. Rural women also have tougher chores such as carrying water, collecting and carrying firewood or processing food stuff by hand. It raises the physical intensity of their work, not captured in the time-use surveys.
Fewer women do paid work today. Data show a decline in female workforce participation at an annual rate of 1.72% between 2004-05 and 2009-10. To bring more women into the workforce, we need to understand their problems in balancing their work-life responsibilities. Surely, men, and not just paid help, can take on a larger share of domestic chores.
