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Business Standard
22-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Women's labour participation in India far from matching G20 peers: Poll
Indian women's participation in the workforce will take at least two decades to catch up with G20 peers, according to a Reuters poll of economists and policy experts, many of whom said they believed poorly-paid self-employment is inflating an already-low rate. Overall job creation is falling short of the needs of India's mostly young, rapidly-growing working-age population. Women, who make up half of that pool, are largely absent from the workforce and most women with jobs are not formally employed on payrolls. The official female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) rose to 31.7% from 27.8% in the latest 2023-24 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), but is well short of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2047 development goal to raise it to 70%, putting it more in line with advanced economies. India is at the bottom of the G20 table, behind Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and lower than even neighbouring Bangladesh and Bhutan, according to World Bank data. The G20 average is around 50%. A majority, 80%, of top independent economists and policy experts surveyed over the past month, 32 of 40, said it would take at least 20 to 30 years for India to reach a rate comparable to other G20 economies, including 18 who said it would take more than three decades. The remaining eight said it would take 10-20 years. "The kind of work women are involved in is not really what we call good jobs or good quality work. It's really just bottom of the ladder, survivalist kind. It's good they're participating but it's not the kind of transformational participation you might imagine," said Ashwini Deshpande, a professor and head of the department of economics at Ashoka University. "The job crisis is much more acute than in countries with similar levels of when jobs are scarce, men get the first priority everywhere," added Deshpande. Only 15.9% of working women are in regular wage or salaried jobs, the kind that come with contracts, steady pay or benefits. While officials have noted the recent rise in female labour force participation as a sign of progress, the latest PLFS survey showed 73.5% of rural working women and over 40% with jobs in urban areas are self-employed. Asked what they make of the official data over 70% of economists surveyed, 32 of 43, said it masked the real picture. " should see household earnings also go up when women are participating and that has not happened, which is a very big marker that this is potentially not the best kind of employment. It's potentially distress-driven," said Rosa Abraham, assistant professor at Azim Premji University. Asked if the recent rise in FLFPR signals real progress, she said: "That level of shift is still nowhere near what you would expect at this level of economic development that we are in and there's still a long way to go." Over 70% of experts said the Indian government's overall unemployment data was inaccurate and masked the severity of joblessness and underemployment. Even when jobs are available, safety concerns and unpaid care work prevent many women from applying. They spend nearly five hours daily on household duties, over three times as much as men, according to the 2025 Time Use Survey. "For women the productive and reproductive age coincide. Hence childcare and lack of suitable facilities serve as a constraint," said Sangeeta Shroff, former professor at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. "To address such issues, it will require aggressive policy intervention which will require considerable time and resources." Asked what the government should prioritise, respondents highlighted expanding childcare, safer workplaces and stronger anti-discrimination measures. Bina Agarwal, professor of development economics and environment at the University of Manchester, said young women need safe hostels in cities and small towns, safe transport to work and enforcement of workplace sexual harassment laws. "These are among many ideas feminist economists in India have been advocating for years. Is anyone listening?" she asked. (Reporting by Devayani Sathyan and Veronica Khongwir; Polling by Pranoy Krishna, Rahul Trivedi and Susobhan Sarkar; Editing by Hari Kishan, Ross Finley, Alexandra Hudson) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Who's doing the dishes? Bollywood film and government data have the same answer
A new Bollywood film - Mrs - has once again laid bare a stark reality: even in well-educated households in India a woman's role is often confined to unpaid domestic work. The protagonist, married to a gynaecologist, finds herself trapped in an endless cycle of cooking, cleaning and caregiving. Her dreams are sidelined not by force, but by relentless criticism and quiet coercion. While the film, which is a remake of the hit Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen, has sparked conversation - and pushback, especially from men on social media - its themes resonate with hard data. A recent government survey reveals that Indian women spend over seven hours a day on unpaid domestic and caregiving work - more than twice the time men do. Data shows that women spend 289 minutes on unpaid domestic work and 137 minutes on unpaid caregiving, whereas men spend 88 minutes on chores and 75 minutes on care work. They also spent less time than men doing paid work and engaging in self-care activities. What's disappointing is that the last such survey which came out six years ago had similar results. Despite the government launching campaigns to empower women, the situation hasn't changed much. India's Time Use Surveys (TUS) track how people spend their time across various activities. Surveyors gather data nationwide by asking individuals aged six to 59 how they spent the previous day. The first TUS was released in 2019, with the second published last week. When the government released findings from the second Time Use Survey (TUS), it highlighted two key shifts: women aged 15 to 59 spent 10 minutes less on unpaid domestic work, while their participation in employment and related activities rose by just over three percentage points. The survey concluded this marked a "shift from unpaid to paid activities" for women - a positive sign that they were spending less time on domestic chores and more time in paid employment. However, economists argue this isn't necessarily true. Even if it is, the slight drop in domestic work suggests women are still juggling paid jobs with a heavier load of unpaid work than men. Ashwini Deshpande, an economics professor at Ashoka University, says TUS data should be analysed alongside India's Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) for a deeper understanding of how women spend their time. FLFPR measures the percentage of women aged 15 and above in the labour force. According to government data, the FLFPR grew from about 23% in 2017-2018 to 37% in 2022-2023. Prof Deshpande says that this increase is not solely due to an increase in employment opportunities for women, but has also been spurred by economic distress. "Women are not waiting for their time spent on domestic chores to reduce to take up jobs. Research shows that women want to work to supplement household incomes and so they end up working 'double-shifts', doing paid work outside the home and unpaid work inside," Prof Deshpande says. Coronavirus: How India's lockdown sparked a debate over maids Coronavirus in India: Did men do more housework during lockdown? Indian women aren't alone in shouldering a disproportionate share of household and caregiving work - it's a global reality. However, the gap in time spent on domestic work is significantly wider in India. Where globally women spend about 2.8 hours more than men on domestic and care work, for Indian women, this difference is closer to four hours. Sociologists attribute this to India's deeply patriarchal society, which continues to enforce strict gender norms. Even among the educated elite, women remain confined by roles upheld and perpetuated not just by men, but also by women. This rigid enforcement of gender roles doesn't just shape women's lives - it also shapes the way stories about them are received. So, while Mrs struck a chord with many, it also faced sharp criticism - especially from men on social media. A men's rights group accused it of "spreading toxicity" against traditional joint families, while others dismissed its premise altogether. Kajol Srinivasan, a Mumbai-based comedian, says the film ruffled feathers because it held up an uncomfortable mirror to society. She told the BBC how her father, who quit his job at 40 to take over household duties while her mother continued working, quickly realised that housework was no easy task. "The first week he was excited; he cooked different dishes and deep-cleaned the house," she says. The Great Indian Kitchen: Serving an unsavoury tale of sexism in home Coronavirus in India: 'PM Modi, please make men share housework!' But then he began to find the work tedious and couldn't continue beyond a week. "My father realised that housework was not just about work, it was also an imbalance in power. The power always stays with the breadwinner; no matter how well you cook, there are no accolades," she says. She believes that women are expected and raised to accept this lower rung of power. "When Indian men talk about what they like about their wives and mothers, it often has a lot to do with how much they have sacrificed for them or how much they take care of them or the home," Ms Srinivasan says. India's Time Use Survey shows that social change is slow, and it may take time before women spend less on domestic work. In the meantime, films like Mrs spark conversations around everyday questions many prefer to avoid - like, who's doing the dishes?
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Who's doing the dishes? Bollywood film and government data have the same answer
A new Bollywood film - Mrs - has once again laid bare a stark reality: even in well-educated households in India a woman's role is often confined to unpaid domestic work. The protagonist, married to a gynaecologist, finds herself trapped in an endless cycle of cooking, cleaning and caregiving. Her dreams are sidelined not by force, but by relentless criticism and quiet coercion. While the film, which is a remake of the hit Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen, has sparked conversation - and pushback, especially from men on social media - its themes resonate with hard data. A recent government survey reveals that Indian women spend over seven hours a day on unpaid domestic and caregiving work - more than twice the time men do. Data shows that women spend 289 minutes on unpaid domestic work and 137 minutes on unpaid caregiving, whereas men spend 88 minutes on chores and 75 minutes on care work. They also spent less time than men doing paid work and engaging in self-care activities. What's disappointing is that the last such survey which came out six years ago had similar results. Despite the government launching campaigns to empower women, the situation hasn't changed much. India's Time Use Surveys (TUS) track how people spend their time across various activities. Surveyors gather data nationwide by asking individuals aged six to 59 how they spent the previous day. The first TUS was released in 2019, with the second published last week. When the government released findings from the second Time Use Survey (TUS), it highlighted two key shifts: women aged 15 to 59 spent 10 minutes less on unpaid domestic work, while their participation in employment and related activities rose by just over three percentage points. The survey concluded this marked a "shift from unpaid to paid activities" for women - a positive sign that they were spending less time on domestic chores and more time in paid employment. However, economists argue this isn't necessarily true. Even if it is, the slight drop in domestic work suggests women are still juggling paid jobs with a heavier load of unpaid work than men. Ashwini Deshpande, an economics professor at Ashoka University, says TUS data should be analysed alongside India's Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) for a deeper understanding of how women spend their time. FLFPR measures the percentage of women aged 15 and above in the labour force. According to government data, the FLFPR grew from about 23% in 2017-2018 to 37% in 2022-2023. Prof Deshpande says that this increase is not solely due to an increase in employment opportunities for women, but has also been spurred by economic distress. "Women are not waiting for their time spent on domestic chores to reduce to take up jobs. Research shows that women want to work to supplement household incomes and so they end up working 'double-shifts', doing paid work outside the home and unpaid work inside," Prof Deshpande says. Coronavirus: How India's lockdown sparked a debate over maids Coronavirus in India: Did men do more housework during lockdown? Indian women aren't alone in shouldering a disproportionate share of household and caregiving work - it's a global reality. However, the gap in time spent on domestic work is significantly wider in India. Where globally women spend about 2.8 hours more than men on domestic and care work, for Indian women, this difference is closer to four hours. Sociologists attribute this to India's deeply patriarchal society, which continues to enforce strict gender norms. Even among the educated elite, women remain confined by roles upheld and perpetuated not just by men, but also by women. This rigid enforcement of gender roles doesn't just shape women's lives - it also shapes the way stories about them are received. So, while Mrs struck a chord with many, it also faced sharp criticism - especially from men on social media. A men's rights group accused it of "spreading toxicity" against traditional joint families, while others dismissed its premise altogether. Kajol Srinivasan, a Mumbai-based comedian, says the film ruffled feathers because it held up an uncomfortable mirror to society. She told the BBC how her father, who quit his job at 40 to take over household duties while her mother continued working, quickly realised that housework was no easy task. "The first week he was excited; he cooked different dishes and deep-cleaned the house," she says. The Great Indian Kitchen: Serving an unsavoury tale of sexism in home Coronavirus in India: 'PM Modi, please make men share housework!' But then he began to find the work tedious and couldn't continue beyond a week. "My father realised that housework was not just about work, it was also an imbalance in power. The power always stays with the breadwinner; no matter how well you cook, there are no accolades," she says. She believes that women are expected and raised to accept this lower rung of power. "When Indian men talk about what they like about their wives and mothers, it often has a lot to do with how much they have sacrificed for them or how much they take care of them or the home," Ms Srinivasan says. India's Time Use Survey shows that social change is slow, and it may take time before women spend less on domestic work. In the meantime, films like Mrs spark conversations around everyday questions many prefer to avoid - like, who's doing the dishes?
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Who's doing the dishes? Bollywood film and government data have the same answer
A new Bollywood film - Mrs - has once again laid bare a stark reality: even in well-educated households in India a woman's role is often confined to unpaid domestic work. The protagonist, married to a gynaecologist, finds herself trapped in an endless cycle of cooking, cleaning and caregiving. Her dreams are sidelined not by force, but by relentless criticism and quiet coercion. While the film, which is a remake of the hit Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen, has sparked conversation - and pushback, especially from men on social media - its themes resonate with hard data. A recent government survey reveals that Indian women spend over seven hours a day on unpaid domestic and caregiving work - more than twice the time men do. Data shows that women spend 289 minutes on unpaid domestic work and 137 minutes on unpaid caregiving, whereas men spend 88 minutes on chores and 75 minutes on care work. They also spent less time than men doing paid work and engaging in self-care activities. What's disappointing is that the last such survey which came out six years ago had similar results. Despite the government launching campaigns to empower women, the situation hasn't changed much. India's Time Use Surveys (TUS) track how people spend their time across various activities. Surveyors gather data nationwide by asking individuals aged six to 59 how they spent the previous day. The first TUS was released in 2019, with the second published last week. When the government released findings from the second Time Use Survey (TUS), it highlighted two key shifts: women aged 15 to 59 spent 10 minutes less on unpaid domestic work, while their participation in employment and related activities rose by just over three percentage points. The survey concluded this marked a "shift from unpaid to paid activities" for women - a positive sign that they were spending less time on domestic chores and more time in paid employment. However, economists argue this isn't necessarily true. Even if it is, the slight drop in domestic work suggests women are still juggling paid jobs with a heavier load of unpaid work than men. Ashwini Deshpande, an economics professor at Ashoka University, says TUS data should be analysed alongside India's Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) for a deeper understanding of how women spend their time. FLFPR measures the percentage of women aged 15 and above in the labour force. According to government data, the FLFPR grew from about 23% in 2017-2018 to 37% in 2022-2023. Prof Deshpande says that this increase is not solely due to an increase in employment opportunities for women, but has also been spurred by economic distress. "Women are not waiting for their time spent on domestic chores to reduce to take up jobs. Research shows that women want to work to supplement household incomes and so they end up working 'double-shifts', doing paid work outside the home and unpaid work inside," Prof Deshpande says. Coronavirus: How India's lockdown sparked a debate over maids Coronavirus in India: Did men do more housework during lockdown? Indian women aren't alone in shouldering a disproportionate share of household and caregiving work - it's a global reality. However, the gap in time spent on domestic work is significantly wider in India. Where globally women spend about 2.8 hours more than men on domestic and care work, for Indian women, this difference is closer to four hours. Sociologists attribute this to India's deeply patriarchal society, which continues to enforce strict gender norms. Even among the educated elite, women remain confined by roles upheld and perpetuated not just by men, but also by women. This rigid enforcement of gender roles doesn't just shape women's lives - it also shapes the way stories about them are received. So, while Mrs struck a chord with many, it also faced sharp criticism - especially from men on social media. A men's rights group accused it of "spreading toxicity" against traditional joint families, while others dismissed its premise altogether. Kajol Srinivasan, a Mumbai-based comedian, says the film ruffled feathers because it held up an uncomfortable mirror to society. She told the BBC how her father, who quit his job at 40 to take over household duties while her mother continued working, quickly realised that housework was no easy task. "The first week he was excited; he cooked different dishes and deep-cleaned the house," she says. The Great Indian Kitchen: Serving an unsavoury tale of sexism in home Coronavirus in India: 'PM Modi, please make men share housework!' But then he began to find the work tedious and couldn't continue beyond a week. "My father realised that housework was not just about work, it was also an imbalance in power. The power always stays with the breadwinner; no matter how well you cook, there are no accolades," she says. She believes that women are expected and raised to accept this lower rung of power. "When Indian men talk about what they like about their wives and mothers, it often has a lot to do with how much they have sacrificed for them or how much they take care of them or the home," Ms Srinivasan says. India's Time Use Survey shows that social change is slow, and it may take time before women spend less on domestic work. In the meantime, films like Mrs spark conversations around everyday questions many prefer to avoid - like, who's doing the dishes?
