The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the Time Use Survey (TUS) on February 25, 2025, revealing how Indians spent their time throughout 2024. This survey breaks down daily activities, from essentials like sleeping, eating, and personal hygiene to leisure, socialising, and unpaid domestic work. India remains one of the few countries, alongside Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the USA, and China, that conduct a National Time Use Survey. The goal is to track how men and women divide their time between paid jobs and unpaid responsibilities.
The National Statistics Office (NSO) first conducted this survey across India in 2019. The latest edition, covering January to December 2024, is the second attempt to quantify who does what, when, and for how long.
The gender divide in household work
Indian women continue to spend significantly more time on unpaid work, including household chores and caregiving, compared to men. Among individuals aged 15–59, 41% of women took on caregiving duties for household members, while only 21.4% of men in the same age group did the same. Even when men participated, the time they spent was noticeably less. Women dedicated around 140 minutes daily to caregiving, while men managed just 74 minutes.
The data reflects how Indian society continues to place caregiving and household responsibilities primarily on women. Despite progress in gender equality, traditional roles persist, with women dedicating nearly 19.8% of their day to unpaid domestic work while men spend only 2.7%.
The survey collected data from 454,192 individuals aged six and above, covering 139,487 households across both rural and urban areas. With such a large sample, the findings confirm what most already know, but many still hesitate to acknowledge. Unpaid labour remains a gendered burden.
Time Use Survey: Has anything changed?
The survey recorded a slight decline in the time women spend on unpaid domestic work. In 2019, they dedicated about 315 minutes daily to these tasks, which dropped to 305 minutes in 2024. A whole five years and the burden shrinks by just 10 minutes. It is hardly a groundbreaking shift.
This minor reduction hints at a very slow shift from unpaid domestic work to paid employment for women. If this pace continues, it might take another few decades before the gap actually feels smaller. The reality is despite all the conversations about change, women still carry the bulk of household responsibilities.
While any decrease in unpaid labour might seem like progress, the change is painfully slow. The question is not whether progress exists but whether it’s happening fast enough to make a real difference.
Employment inequality: A slow climb for women
The gender gap in employment is also another area of concern. While there has been an increase in women’s participation, the progress remains underwhelming. In 2024, only 25% of women (aged 15–59) participated in employment-related activities, up from 21.8% in 2019. Meanwhile, men’s participation rose from 70.9% to 75% in the same period. Even as more women join the workforce, they are nowhere close to closing the gap.
Time Use Survey suggests that men spend more time on paid work
One of the key challenges is not just participation but the amount of time men and women spend on paid work. On average, men dedicate 473 minutes (about 7.8 hours) a day to employment, whereas women only spend 341 minutes (about 5.7 hours). This two-hour difference is not merely a reflection of choice but a consequence of deeply rooted societal expectations. Women continue to shoulder the majority of unpaid household responsibilities. That makes it harder for them to commit the same amount of time to paid employment as men.
Men allocate 19.9% of their time to paid work, while women dedicate only 4.9%. The gap is not just about employment numbers but also about how work is structured in society. Many women take on part-time jobs or opt for flexible work arrangements, not out of preference but necessity. The lack of adequate childcare support, rigid work policies, and societal pressure to prioritise family over career keeps them from working as many hours as men.
Employment opportunities for women still lag
Another issue is the quality of employment opportunities available to women. Many women are confined to low-paying or informal sector jobs with little job security. The absence of policies that support working mothers, such as paid maternity leave and flexible work schedules, further limits their participation. In contrast, men’s employment rates remain consistently high because workplace structures have historically been designed around their needs. These structures assume that men do not have primary caregiving responsibilities.
The final thoughts
A few extra minutes of free time for women or a slight increase in employment participation is not the change we have been waiting for. Progress, if you can call it that, has been crawling at a pace so slow that it barely scratches the surface of deep-rooted inequalities. The burden is not just about time. It is about expectations. A man working long hours is seen as ambitious, while a woman doing the same is questioned about who is taking care of the home.
Conversations are important. However, real change will come only when societal norms shift, workplace policies become more inclusive, and unpaid labour is more evenly distributed.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are based on the writer’s insights, supported by data and resources available both online and offline, as applicable. Changeincontent.com is committed to promoting inclusivity across all forms of content. We broadly define inclusivity as media, policies, law, and history—encompassing all elements that influence the lives of women and marginalised individuals. Our goal is to promote understanding and advocate for comprehensive inclusivity.
