‘Gujarat women spend 17.6% of daily time on unpaid work’

Ahmedabad: Gender stereotypes remain deeply entrenched when it comes to earning and taking care of the household, according to the Time Use Survey (TUS) 2024 of the National Sample Survey (NSS). For Gujarat, the survey results showed that men spent 23% of their total time every day on employment and related activities while for women, unpaid domestic work accounted for the highest share – 17.6% -- of their total daily time.
Among women, paid work took up 6.3% of their daily time, whereas for men, unpaid domestic services took up 1% of their daily time. According to the survey, men spent 11% of their daily time on culture, leisure, mass media and sports, and women spent 9.4% on the same. For both men and women, socialising, communication and community and religious activities took up 10% of their daily time.
Compared to the national figures, Gujarat had a higher proportion of people engaged in work. Nationally, men spent 20% of their daily time on employment while women spent 5%. However, in Gujarat, men and women spent 23% and 6.3% respectively of their daily time at work.
At 10%, Gujaratis spent more time socialising compared to 8.7% nationally, whereas in cultural and leisure activities, the state lagged at 10.3% compared to 11% nationally.
Experts pointed out that the definitions of activities, the profiles of respondents and age groups matter when it comes to generalising the responses.
"The new-age lifestyle involves multiple activities going on simultaneously. One may be listening to music while doing domestic chores or socialising over a cricket match. In such a scenario, the values should be taken as indicative. The results show similar values in several categories for urban and rural populations or genders, indicating a changing society," said a sociologist from the city.
The national results showed an average of 1.8 hours of mass media consumption every day, which was on a par with 120 minutes or two hours of consumption for the 15 to 59 years age group. Gender roles came to the fore in paid and unpaid activities. Nationally, 414 minutes a day were spent by men on paid activities compared to 123 minutes on unpaid activities. In comparison, women spent 363 minutes on unpaid activities compared to 302 minutes on paid activities.