The Data Point published on Monday showed how professional Indian women work the most number of hours globally. Young Indian women in professional jobs such as auditing, Information Technology, and media work more than 55 hours a week, which translates to 9-11 hours of work every day depending on whether it was a six-day or five-day work week.
The Data Point was published after the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a Chartered Accountant. According to her mother, Anna, 26, lost her life because of “work stress” at Ernst & Young. The letter addressed to the company’s India chairman went viral, leading to discussions on the increasing workload of professionals in India.
Indian women are working in newer and demanding jobs these days. According to data, despite women undergoing more stress in office, they do not enjoy a commensurate reduction in the amount of household work they do. While families have become more accepting of women working over time, they still do not share the women’s workload and care responsibilities at home.
Chart 1 shows the average time (in minutes) that men and women across employment groups spent on unpaid domestic and care activities during a day in 2019. Women who are not in the labour force (neither employed nor seeking employment, mostly housewives) spent the most time on unpaid domestic/care work, averaging 457 minutes or 7.5 hours a day. But employed women were not far behind, spending 348 minutes or 5.8 hours a day.
Chart 1 | Average minutes spent per day in 2019 on unpaid domestic and care activities across employment groups
In Monday’s Data Point, we had established that professional women spend 9-11 hours at work a day. When this data is read with the conclusion in Chart 1 — that employed women spend about 5-6 hours doing unpaid household work — we see a worrying trend. This means that every day, working women are left with only about 7-10 hours to wind down and rest. While this may not be the case in every household and outliers do exist, the data correspond to an average Indian household.
The data show that unemployed men spend less time doing household chores than employed women — only 3.5 hours per day compared to employed women’s 5.8 hours. Chart 1 shows the gap. Employed men spend 2.7 hours a day on such chores, which is about three hours less than what employed women spend.
One of the biggest factors for such a skew is marriage. Chart 2 shows the average time spent (in minutes) on unpaid domestic and care activities in a day by men and women categorised by marital status. Married women — employed or otherwise — spend eight hours in unpaid work every day, about two times more than women who never married. In contrast, married men spend 2.8 hours in unpaid house work, fewer than men who never married (3.1 hours). So, as we can see, post-marriage, household work reduces for men and doubles for women.
Chart 2 | Average minutes spent on unpaid domestic and care activities in a day across marital status in 2019
Moreover, there is no notable difference between urban and rural women in the amount of time they spend on household work. Table 3 lists the share of men/women aged 15-59 who participated in select activities in a day in 2019.
Table 3 | The table shows the % of men/women aged 15-59 who participated in select activities in 2019
There are no regional variations either. Chart 4 shows the share of men and women aged 15-59 who participated in unpaid domestic work and employment across States. In all the States, close to 85% or more women were engaged in such chores, while in a majority of the States, the share was below 50% for men. In Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat, the share of men doing household work was less than 20%.
Chart 4 | Percentage of men and women aged 15-59 who participated in unpaid domestic work and employment across States. Each circle corresponds to a State
Source: Time Use Survey (2019), National Family Health Survey (2019-21)
vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
Published - September 25, 2024 07:00 am IST
