Mint Quick Edit | Daily time use: We must bridge the gender gap
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The latest Time Use Survey released by India's statistics ministry earlier this week demands attention.
Not for a surprise finding, but for serving us a timely reminder of a glaring gender disparity. While men and women in 2024 said they spent a similar amount of time on "self care", which includes eating, sleeping and personal hygiene, on average, women aged 15-59 reported devoting a fifth (about 305 minutes) of their day to unpaid domestic work, plus a tenth of it (140 minutes) to caregiving.
In contrast, men spent much less time on those. Although the burden of home duties borne by women has eased a bit since this survey's 2019 findings, the skew spotlights a major hurdle in increasing the participation of women in India's workforce, which must improve sharply for the economy to reach its Viksit Bharat target.
State-led efforts aimed at women's welfare mostly comprise cash transfers freebies like bus rides and other vote baits. What's needed is a social transformation in favour of family-level gender equity that reaches all homes across the country.
Men must share household chores. Let's not allow patriarchal notions of gender roles drag development.
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