Knowledge Nugget: What is the relevance of ‘Time Use Survey’ for UPSC?

Why in the news?

The National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the second All-India Time Use Survey for the period January-December 2024. It 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 first All-India survey was conducted during January – December 2019. Only few countries around the world like Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the USA, and China conduct such National Time Use Survey to analyze how people allocate their time to various daily activities.

Key Takeaways:

1. TUS is different from other household surveys because it captures time disposition on different aspects of human activities, be it paid, unpaid, or other activities with such details which helps measure various aspects of gender statistics. It also provides information on time spent on learning, socializing, leisure activities, self-care activities, etc., by the household members.

2. Time spent by females in a day on unpaid domestic services for household members reduced by 10 minutes to 289 minutes in 2024 from 299 minutes in 2019. However, females spent 201 more minutes in a day in unpaid domestic services for household members than their male counterparts last year.

3. 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. Females spent 62 more minutes in a day in unpaid caregiving activities for household members than males, with the average time spent by females registering an increase to 137 minutes in 2024 from 134 minutes in 2019.

4. 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.

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

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

6. 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. 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.

7. 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.

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

Difference between paid and unpaid activities

Paid work includes self-employment for the production of goods and services; regular wage or salary or casual labour for the production of goods and services. Unpaid activities include care for children, sick, elderly, differently-abled persons in their 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.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Purple Economy and Care Economy

1. According to the United Nations Economist Network, “the Purple Economy, also sometimes referred to as the care economy, obtains its name from the color adopted by many feminist movements. It represents a new vision of economics that recognizes the importance of care work, empowerment and autonomy of women to the functioning of the economies, wellbeing of societies and life sustainability.”

2. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines Care Economy as a “set of activities related to the provision of care and support to individuals, households, and communities, including both paid and unpaid work.” Care Economy encompasses a broad spectrum of labour and resources dedicated to meeting the care needs of individuals and families.

3. One of the characteristics of the care economy is that women are disproportionately represented here. According to the World Health Organisation, women form 70% of the total workers in health and social sectors with a gender pay gap of around 28% on average, making it one of the most biased sectors in terms of wage payments.

4. The underpayment and undervaluation of care work contribute to its invisibility in economic metrics, resulting in market failure. According to the recent policy brief, the contribution of care work to India’s GDP has been estimated to be around 15-17%. This figure underscores the economic value that unpaid and underpaid care work provides, although it is often overlooked in traditional economic measures.

5. The 5R framework provided by the International Labour Organisation has often been suggested as a key to understanding and improving the efficiency, sustainability, and fairness of care work. The framework includes recognizing, reducing and redistributing unpaid care, ensuring adequate reward systems for paid care workers and prioritizing representation of caregivers and care recipients from policy design to evaluation.

Post Read MCQ

Consider the following statements:

1. Time Use Survey, a biennial report, measures the time dispositions by the population on different activities.

2. For the first time, time spent by females on employment and related activities is more than men.

3. Purple economy recognizes the importance of care work done by women.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Read more: Balancing the care and monetised economies for India’s growth

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