Indian Women Spend 10 times more Time on Unpaid Domestic Work, finds Report

By: WE Staff | Saturday, 30 March 2024

A study published by the Journal of Family and Economic Issues on finds that 'In India, women spend nearly ten times more time on unpaid domestic and care work than men worldwide.' It reveals that married Indian women perform twice as much unpaid domestic work as single women, with Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh communities working the most hours. It also highlights the significant differences where men only spend 1.7 hours a day on these duties, compared to 4.2 hours for women.

The gender disparity is even more evident in India. In India, women perform unpaid caregiving and household chores for nearly 10 times more than men do which leads to persistent biases against them. This results in an unreasonable amount of unpaid labor that is frequently referred to as 'unproductive labor'. The shift from multigenerational houses to nuclear families showcases the difference. That majorly affects the work-life balance and mobility of women in their personal lives.

In contrast, those women who are working or employed at firms spend less time performing unpaid household work specifically when they are well educated. In addition to this, mothers tend to devote more time to household chores when their children are school-going. It is critical to identify, decrease, and divide the unpaid care and household labor. In order to uplift the gender disparity, investments in infrastructure, jobs, services, and care policies are required.