Hyderabad: On an average, women in India currently spend up to 352 minutes per day on domestic work, 5.77 times more than men, and at least 40 per cent more than women in South Africa and China, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data.
Experts also said that women who are undergoing double burden are going through ‘time poverty.’ Time poverty fundamentally undermines women’s human rights since it undermines women’s agency and ability to make choices, as per the Oxfam report.
Compared to men, women are less likely to work full-time, more likely to be employed in lower-paid occupations, and less likely to progress in their careers. As a result, gender pay gaps persist and women are more likely to end their lives in poverty. Women bear the brunt of domestic and family responsibilities, even when working full-time, according to the OCED report.
Experts said, “In poor urban and rural households there’s no question of hiring anyone to do your domestic work; many women stay awake between 17-19 hours a day to complete their tasks.”
Women also spend eight hours less on activities such as learning, social and cultural activities, according to a pilot time-use survey conducted by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation between 1988 and 1999. India’s last time-use survey was conducted in 1998-99 and there has been no similar exercise since then.
According to a report by the National Sample Survey Office, in both rural and urban areas, about 92 per cent women spent most of their time on domestic duties. Among those who spent most of their time on domestic duties, about 60 per cent in rural areas and 64 per cent in urban areas did so due to the reason that there was no other member to carry out domestic duties. The rest of the eight per cent do it because of their ‘own preference’.
The same report also reveals that among women of age 15 years and above engaged in domestic duties, about 34 per cent in rural areas and 28 per cent in urban areas were willing to accept work at their household premises.
Ms. K. Shiva Kumari, a government employee, said, “Men should voluntarily come forward and share the workload.”
