Context: Recently, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has released the findings of the Time Use Survey 2024, conducted during January – December 2024.
Relevance of the topic:
Prelims: Key facts about Time Use Survey 2024.
Mains: Issues associated with Unpaid care work.
Time Use Survey
- Time Use Survey (TUS) 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.
- Time Use Survey 2024 (January-December) covered over 4.5 lakh people belonging to 1.3 lakh households (both rural and urban). Information on time use was collected from each member of age 6 years and above of the selected households.
- Released by: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)
- National Statistics Office, MoSPI conducted the first all-India Time Use Survey during January – December 2019.
- January – December 2024 is the second such All-India Survey.
Major findings of the Time Use Survey 2024
- 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 289 minutes in unpaid domestic services for household members than 88 minutes spent by males in 2024.
- 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.
- For unpaid caregiving services for household members, females spent 137 minutes a day, while males spent 75 minutes in 2024.
- For employment and related activities, men spent 132 minutes more than females (341 minutes by females, 473 minutes by males).
- During 2024, 75% of the males and 25% of the females in the age group 15-59 years, participated in employment and related activities during the reference period of 24 hours.
What are Unpaid Activities?
- Paid work includes self-employment for production of goods and services; regular wage or salary or casual labour for production of goods and services.
- Unpaid activities include:
- care for children, sick, elderly, differently-abled persons in 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.
Also Read: Empowering Women: Unpaid Care Work's Influence on Labor Force Engagement