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Women on an average gave 10 minutes more to "employment-related activities" and spent 7 minutes less on "unpaid domestic services for household members" per day in 2024 against what they did five years ago in 2019.
The amount of time spent by women in "employment-related activities" was 71 minutes in 2024, 10 minutes more than 2019.
Separately, the amount of time spent by women on "unpaid domestic services for household members" in a day declined by 7 minutes to 236 minutes during the same time period, shows the latest Time Use Survey (TUS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Meanwhile for men, the time spent on "employment-related activities" rose to 287 minutes in 2024 from 263 minutes in 2019, whereas they spent one minute less (24 minutes) on 'unpaid domestic services for household members' in 2024 compared to 2019.
As a share of the population, 75 per cent of the men and 25 per cent of the women in the age group of 15-59 years participated in 'employment and related activities' in a day in 2024, as compared to 70.9 per cent for males and 21.8 per cent for females during 2019.
On the other hand, both men and women spent more time in a day on "unpaid caregiving activities for household members" in 2024. While women spent 27 per cent more time (47 minutes) compared to 2019, time spent by men rose 18 per cent (13 minutes) during the same time period.
In TUS 2024, information on time use was collected for persons aged 6 years and above with a reference period of 24 hours.
The respondents were asked about their activities performed in the designated time slots of 30 minutes and the same was recorded against the corresponding slot.
In case of multiple activities in a time slot, a maximum of three activities which were performed for 10 minutes or more, were recorded.
The activities reported by the respondents were then codified into nine major divisions.
According to the survey, women spent more time on "culture, leisure, mass-media and sports practices" in 2024 (148 minutes), as compared to 2019 (141 minutes). Correspondingly, men spent 169 minutes as compared to 146 minutes for the same activity.
Both men (124 minutes as compared to 134 minutes) and women (126 minutes as compared to 127 minutes) spent less time on "socialising and communication, community participation and religious practice" in 2024, than they did in 2019.
However, the time spent by both men (169 minutes as compared to 146 minutes) and women (148 minutes as compared to 141 minutes) on "culture, leisure, mass-media and sports practices" increased in 2024, as compared to 2019.
The MoSPI conducted the first country-wide Time Use Survey (TUS) during January-December, 2019. The second all-India TUS was conducted after a gap of 4 years for the period January-December 2024.
"India is among the few countries, including Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, USA and China that conduct the national TUS to analyse how people allocate their time to various daily activities. The primary objective of the survey is to measure the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities," the ministry said in a statement.
