Indian women do far more unpaid household and care work than men, while a large share of that labour is absent from wages and conventional GDP accounting. India’s 2024 Time Use Survey shows the gap in who participates and how much time participants spend; a separate policy brief estimates the work’s monetary value using wage assumptions. Those measures answer different questions, so they should be read separately.
1. What the time-use survey measures
India’s 2024 Time Use Survey was the country’s second all-India round, following the 2019 survey. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation surveyed 139,487 households and 454,192 people aged six and above. Respondents reported activities during a 24-hour period running from 4:00 a.m. on the day before the interview to 4:00 a.m. on interview day. Activities were reported in 30-minute slots; up to three activities could be recorded in a slot if each lasted at least 10 minutes. The Ministry said the survey’s primary objective was “to measure the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities.” Ministry survey release, February 25, 2025.
Two measures matter throughout the figures below: participation is the share of people who did an activity, while average time per participant is the time among those who did it. They are not interchangeable; a low participant share can coexist with long hours among the people doing the work.
2. Women participate in household caregiving at nearly twice the rate
Among people aged 15–59 in 2024, 41% of women participated in household caregiving, compared with 21.4% of men. These are participation rates during the survey’s reference period, not measures of how many hours caregiving takes or how the burden is divided within every household.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →#1 Best Overall
3. Female caregiving participants spend almost twice as long
Among participants aged 15–59, women averaged about 140 minutes a day in household caregiving, against 74 minutes for men. These are averages among participants only, not across all women and men in the age group. The gap therefore reflects both women’s higher likelihood of participating and the longer average time among female participants.
4. Domestic-service time declined modestly between survey rounds
Female participants aged 15–59 averaged 305 minutes in unpaid domestic services in 2024, compared with 315 minutes in 2019. The Ministry interpreted the decline as signifying a shift from unpaid to paid activity. The time-use figures alone, however, do not establish that this shift caused the decrease; they show the difference in reported time between the two survey rounds.
Rank #2
- Ideal for Gifting
- Ideal for a bookworm
- Compact for travelling
5. Employment participation is not the same as paid hours or annual employment
The Ministry reported that 25% of women and 75% of men aged 15–59 participated in employment and related activities during the 24-hour reference period in 2024. This is a daily-period participation measure: it does not state the number of hours worked, whether a person was employed over a year, or the value of unpaid work they also performed.
6. The monetary value depends on the wage method
A 2024 Confederation of Indian Industry and partner policy brief estimated women’s unpaid domestic and care work at 15–17% of GDP using two wage-based approaches. These are modeled valuations, not payments made to women or a sum already recorded as a GDP line item.
Recommended Free Tools
| Method | Estimated value | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum-wage proxy | INR 30.7 lakh crore, close to 5% of GDP in 2019–20 | Values unpaid-work hours using a minimum-wage benchmark. |
| Weighted average wage | INR 34.5 lakh crore, or 17% of GDP | Values hours using weighted average wages based on employment categories. |
The brief combines time-use information from TUS 2019 with wage and labour inputs from PLFS 2019–20 and population projections. Because the estimates use different wage assumptions, the 15–17% range is not a survey finding about money actually earned. It is also not directly interchangeable with an earlier 3.1% GDP estimate reported by IndiaSpend in 2019; the available account does not establish that the earlier estimate used the same method. CII policy brief.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why unpaid work matters to the economy
Cooking, cleaning, personal care and looking after children or other family members sustain households and support the paid economy, even when no wage changes hands. The policy brief distinguishes direct care, such as personal care, from indirect care, such as cooking and cleaning, while recognizing that these forms of work overlap. A wage-based valuation makes some of this contribution visible, but it does not turn unpaid hours into earnings or measure the whole effect on economic output.
Rank #4
The brief argues that care services and infrastructure could support women’s participation in paid work and create care-sector jobs. Its proposed areas include childcare, elderly care, long-term care for highly dependent adults, domestic work and early childhood learning, alongside skill development, service quality and public, private and community roles. These are policy recommendations and potential effects, not outcomes measured by the time-use survey.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- It can be a gift option
- Comes with secure packaging
- Helpful in various ways
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
