Mint Quick Edit | Daily time use: We must bridge the gender gap

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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. 

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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. 

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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.