Females spent 201 mins more than males per day in unpaid household work: Time Use Survey 2024

Females spent about 140 minutes a day in caregiving activities compared with 74 minutes spent by males aged 15-59 years. As many as 41 per cent of females aged 15-59 years participated in caregiving for their household members, while male participation in such caregiving was almost half at 21.4 per cent. “This corroborates the Indian social fabric wherein most of the caregiving responsibilities for household members are borne by the females,” the ministry said.

Unpaid activities include care for children, sick, elderly, differently-abled persons in own households; production of other services for own consumption; production of goods for own consumption; voluntary work for production of goods & services in households and market/non-market units; unpaid trainee work and other unpaid work for production of goods and services. Paid work includes self-employment for production of goods and services; regular wage or salary or casual labour for production of goods and services.

Time Use Survey (TUS) measures time dispositions by the population on different activities. The primary objective of the Survey is to measure the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities, the ministry said.

The gap between the minutes spent by females than males in a day is the sharpest for unpaid domestic work, followed by unpaid caregiving services for household members. For instance, females spent 289 minutes in unpaid domestic services for household members, 201 minutes more than 88 minutes spent by males in such work in 2024. For unpaid caregiving services for household members, females spent 137 minutes a day, while males spent 75 minutes in 2024, showing females spent 62 minutes more in such work everyday.

For employment and related activities, however, men spent 132 minutes more than females (341 minutes by females, 473 minutes by males).

Overall, around 83.9 per cent females participated in unpaid activities during a day in 2024, almost the same as the level of 84.0 per cent in 2019, while for paid activities, their share increased 20.6 per cent in 2024 from 17.1 per cent in 2019.

Average time (in minutes) spent in a day per participant

The participation rate of males in unpaid activities increased to 45.8 per cent in 2024 from 43.9 per cent in 2019, while for paid work, their share increased to 60.5 per cent from 54.8 per cent.

For learning activities, there was a reduction in time spent during a day by both males and females.

Males spent 415 minutes in learning activities in 2024 as against 426 minutes earlier in 2019, while females spent 413 minutes in such activities in 2024, down from 423 minutes in 2019. Children aged 6-14 years spent around 413 minutes a day in learning activities, with an 89.3 per cent participation rate in 2024, the report said.

Time spent in a day in employment and related activities increased to 341 minutes among females in 2024 from 333 minutes, while for males, it increased to 473 minutes from 459 minutes.

708 minutes in a day was spent on self-care and maintenance activities by persons aged 6 years and above. Females of this age group spent 706 minutes, while males spent 710 minutes in such activities, the report said.

Average time (in minutes) spent in a day per person of age 6 years and above in different activities during Time Use Survey 2019 and 2024.

Culture, leisure, mass media and sports practices accounted for 164 minutes of a female’s time in a day in 2024, almost flat from 165 minutes in 2019. For males, however, there was a sharp increase in time spent in a day in culture, leisure, mass media and sports practices at 177 minutes in 2024 from 164 minutes in 2019.

For socialising and communication, community participation and religious practice, while females spent the same amount of time at 139 minutes in both 2024 and 2019, males reduced their time for such activities to 138 minutes from 147 minutes.

This survey covered 4,54,192 persons belonging to 1,39,487 households (rural: 83,247 and urban: 56,240). Information on time use was collected from each member of age 6 years and above of the selected households.