{"id":65056,"date":"2025-09-25T11:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=65056"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:59:09","slug":"womens-unpaid-care-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/womens-unpaid-care-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Unpaid Care Work &#8211; Calls for Better Data"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Unpaid Care Work Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experts have urged the government to refine the Time Use Survey to capture whether women\u2019s rising unpaid care work is a matter of choice or obligation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unpaid care work forms the invisible backbone of economies worldwide, yet it remains undercounted and undervalued.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, women disproportionately shoulder this burden, spending hours daily on household chores, caregiving, and community work that go unrecognised in formal economic indicators like GDP.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While India conducts a <\/span><b>Time Use Survey<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (TUS) to map these patterns, experts argue that it does not fully capture the reasons behind women\u2019s engagement in unpaid labour.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The need for more granular data has become crucial as <\/span><b>female labour force participation rates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (FLFPR) in India remain among the lowest in the world, raising concerns over gender inequality in economic and social outcomes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Women\u2019s Unpaid Care Work in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Globally, women spend three times more hours than men on unpaid care work. In India, the gender gap is even more striking.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the 2019 TUS, Indian women spend <\/span><b>4.5 hours daily<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on unpaid household and caregiving tasks, compared to just <\/span><b>1.5 hours for men<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Activities include:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cooking, cleaning, and household maintenance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Caring for children, elderly, and sick family members.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Community-related unpaid services, such as water collection.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While vital, these activities are excluded from GDP accounting, thereby undervaluing women\u2019s economic contributions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This unpaid work also constrains women\u2019s access to education, skill development, and formal employment, creating a vicious cycle of economic dependency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Impact on Female Labour Force Participation<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s female labour force participation rate hovers around <\/span><b>23% (PLFS 2022-23)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, far lower than global averages and peers like China (61%) and Bangladesh (38%).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A significant factor behind this gap is the disproportionate unpaid care burden on women.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The absence of institutional support, such as affordable childcare, elderly care infrastructure, and flexible work arrangements, worsens the problem.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Limitations of the Time Use Survey<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> conducted India\u2019s first TUS in 1998-99, followed by the second in 2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the survey captures the number of hours men and women spend on paid and unpaid activities, experts argue it falls short in answering critical questions:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Choice vs. Compulsion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Are women engaging in unpaid care work voluntarily, or because societal and economic pressures leave them with no option?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Quality of Work<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Does unpaid care work affect women\u2019s health, aspirations, and capacity to enter paid employment?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Policy Integration<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: How can the findings be used to design childcare schemes, flexible employment policies, and social security?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without capturing these nuances, the TUS risks portraying unpaid labour as an accepted \u201cchoice\u201d rather than an economic compulsion rooted in gender norms.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Expert Recommendations for Improvement<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several labour economists, gender experts, and social researchers have called for reforms in how India measures unpaid care work:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Refined Survey Methodology<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Introduce qualitative questions on whether women see unpaid care work as a duty or a choice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capture intergenerational differences, as younger women may perceive unpaid labour differently than older cohorts.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Integration with Labour Statistics<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link TUS data with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/periodic-labour-force-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Periodic Labour Force Survey<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (PLFS) to better understand how unpaid care work affects employment trends.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Policy-Oriented Use of Data<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use findings to strengthen schemes like the <\/span><b>Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Anganwadi services<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, ensuring women get institutional support for care responsibilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Recognition in GDP Accounting<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Explore satellite accounts or alternative GDP frameworks that assign economic value to unpaid care work.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/business\/choice-or-duty-experts-want-government-survey-to-check-on-womens-unpaid-care-work-10267482\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Experts urge the government to refine the Time Use Survey to capture whether women\u2019s unpaid care work is a matter of choice or compulsion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":65064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,2883,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-65056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-unpaid-care-work","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}