Data from 2024 and women’s time poverty

The initial findings from the latest Time-Use Survey (January–December 2024) have just been released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The survey shows that the time spent by females (for persons of age 6 years and above) on unpaid domestic work is 289 minutes a day compared to 88 minutes for males. Of the total time in a day, females spent 16.4 percent of their time on unpaid domestic work compared to males, who only spent 1.7 percent of their time on such work. This is not all. Other than domestic work, females in India spent 137 minutes a day in caregiving activities, taking care of children and the elderly, compared to 75 minutes spent by males.

The burden of unpaid domestic and care work on females increases with age. Females between the ages 15–59 years spent 305 minutes a day on such work, recording a marginal decline from 315 minutes a day in 2019. For the same age group, 41 percent of females participated in caregiving for household members, compared to 21.4 percent by males.