Quantifying the unpaid women's work: Experience from a time use survey in North India

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Introduction
Valuing unpaid work is important in
capturing the economic contribution of
unpaid non-SNA work. We reduce the
invisibility of ‘women’s work’ by
quantifying it in monetary terms.
One challenge is for the culture to
change, so that people recognise
women’s work and men participate in
child care and cooking.
As economists we work toward
quantifying and recognizing the unpaid
work done in the home.
We found men did a lot of house-based
unpaid and domestic work. Women
were working long hours, e.g. 10 hours
per day, in the villages, once the unpaid
work was included.
Quantifying the Unpaid Women’s Work: Experience
from a Time Use Survey in North India
Amaresh Dubey, Anup K Mishra, Wendy Olsen and Santosh K Singh 2018
References
Budlender, D. (2010). What do Time Use Studies Tell Us about
Unpaid Care Work: Evidence from Seven Countries, Geneva:
UNRISD.
Budlender, D. and A. L. Brathaug (2000) “Calculating the Value
of Unpaid Labour in South Africa.” National Statistics Offices,
South Africa.
Elson, D. (2008) “The Three R’s of Unpaid Work: Recognition,
Reduction and Redistribution.” Paper presented at the Expert
Group Meeting on Unpaid Work, Economic Development and
Human Well-Being, UNDP, New York, November 2008.
Hirway, I., & Jose, S. (2011). Understanding Women's Work
Using Time Use Statistics: The case of India. Feminist
Economics, 17 (4)
For the minimum wage rate of unskilled worker find the
government statements by seeing these links:
UP (Rs. 262.11)
http://www.labourlawindia.com/mw_notifications/up%20mw
%2001-10-2015%20to%2031-03-
2016/UP%20Minimum%20wages%20wef%2001-10-2015.pdf
Bihar (Rs. 194.00) http://www.citehr.com/538695-jharkhand-
revises-minimum-wages-effective-26-08-a.html
Jharkhand (Rs. 251.92)
http://www.biharchamber.org/content/new-minimum-wages-
effective-1st-april-2015
Objective
The main aim of this paper is to
investigate women’s unpaid
household and quantify women’s
unpaid household work in rural
India, and to set out an economic
value for it. We analyze the
average daily time spent by these
women and men on paid and
unpaid work.
Research Methodology
Mixed Method
Quantitative Data
Collection &
Analysis
Qualitative Data
Collection &
Analysis
This research used a
questionnaire based
interview of 500
households in three
states of north rural
India i.e., Uttar
Pradesh , Bihar and
Jharkhand. The
information gathered
about general hhold
information,
members' roster about
work, and other
information.
This survey covered
attitudes about
women working, and
time-use data, for one
married couple from
each household.
For the
quantifying of
women’s
economic
(productive)
work, we have
analysed the
time-use data.
Total 45 semi-
interview have
been taken from a
mixed men and
women sample,
from the same
surveyed
households.
Total 30 women
and 15 men had
interviewed (India)
Compare Results &
Interpret: The
qualitative results
help explain the
quantitative
results
The qualitative
result give a in-
depth support,
showing why we
have to quantify
the women’s
unpaid work.
Time Spent on Activity by Men and Women
The study conducted in 15 villages of the north
central rural India in 2015 confirms the unequal
unpaid work status of men and women. We
applied the time use diary method
on which basis, we found that on an average,
women spent 9-10 hours daily on unpaid
economic activity, and on other hand, men
spent only 5-6 hours on the same.
Time use per day (in hours) of male and female in study area of unpaid
economic activity (in first round survey)
Economic Activity
Sex
Male Female
Crop farming and vegetable gardening 0.78 0.43
Livestock care 0.91 0.67
Fetching of fruits, hunting, collecting 0.01 0.04
Mining and rock quarrying, rock breaking - 0
Construction Activities 0.01 -
Manufacturing Activities (beedi, garment 0.01 0.01
Trade and Business 0.01 0.02
Services 0.03 0.01
Grinding, flour, husking, or making spic 0.08 0.24
Cleaning 0.13 0.71
Washing and ironing cloths and utensils 0.02 1.36
Repairing the house or repair household 0.05 0.01
Cooking and serving 0.09 3.4
Getting firewood 0.01 0.14
Carrying water, fetching water 0.02 0.19
Childcare 0.1 0.66
Teaching one痴 own children or giving tu 0.11 0.07
Caring for the sick people 0.02 0.06
Training, private or government (DWCRA e 0.01
Other activities 0.48 0.7
Total 2.88 8.73
Source: Primary data.
0.54
0.72
0.88
1.57
4.21
0.7
0.71
0.81
1.31
3.18
0.71
0.73
0.81
1.29
3.16
0.64
0.9
1.2
1.23
2.88
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Childcare
Other activities
Cleaning
Washing and ironing cloths and utensils
Cooking and serving
Other activities
Childcare
Livestock care
Washing and ironing cloths and utensils
Cooking and serving
Grinding, flour, husking, or making spic
Services
Trade and Business
Manufacturing Activities (beedi, garment
Mining and rock quarrying, rock breaking
Cleaning
Livestock care
Childcare
Washing and ironing cloths and utensils
Cooking and serving
FCOBCSCST
Caste-wise per-day time engased in top five economic works
Quantification of Unpaid Work
It is difficult to accurately quantify the market
value of women’s unpaid work in the rural areas.
For the purpose of our present study, we
calculated economic value using the replacement
value method. The cost of unpaid workers is
calculated by the cost of paying someone else,
based on current wages for comparable work.
The calculation is based here on the average rural
wage rate of unskilled labours (Rs. 236 per day) for
April-2015- March-2015 as per these 3 states.
Rural women engaged in 18 to 20 different tasks
each day. The per day average market value of
rural unskilled women work was Rs. 258, and Rs.
85 for the rural men (who did more paid work).
84.96
257.55
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Men Women
Income
Per day estimated value of unpaid
economic activity (Rural North India)
Conclusion and Suggestions
Women’s participation in the economy
seems to be disguised, and they suffer from
social and economic exclusion from the
mainstream of the economy.
The value of unpaid work performed by the
rural women may be quantified and valued.
Quantification of worktime may be linked
with public social security welfare
programmes like MNREGA, in which there
is a “100 days’ job guarantee”, leading to
paying women appropriate wages. Due to
lack of proper co-ordination in the rural
areas the women earn less than men,
even in MNREGA. At least rural unpaid
women workers should directly benefit
from cash transfer into their account
through JAN DHAN Yojana (Govt. financial
inclusion scheme) recognising the typical
unpaid economic activities performed in
twenty-four hours.
After gaining the recognition of their
unpaid work the second step may be to
enhance the rural skill development
programmes, especially for women.
Adequate recognition should be given to
the unpaid work tasks of the rural women
to increase their self-esteem and to
improve their image in the family and
society at large.
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