Target Audience: Gender economists, policy analysts, development practitioners, feminist researchers, and anyone working on unpaid work measurement
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of economics and gender concepts helpful but not required
Materials Needed: Calculators, time diaries, flipchart paper, Indian Time Use Survey data
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Rashida's Day: Wakes at 5 AM, fetches water (1 hour), cooks breakfast (1 hour), sends children to school, works in family shop (6 hours, unpaid), cooks lunch, does laundry by hand, helps children with homework, cooks dinner, puts children to bed. Total: 14 hours of work. Only the shop work and the water fetching fall inside GDP's production boundary, and she is paid for none of it.
Rashida's Neighbor Meera: Wakes at 7 AM, checks WhatsApp, commutes to office job (1 hour), works at computer (8 hours for ₹15,000/month), commutes home, orders dinner on app, watches Netflix. Total: 10 hours of work, contributes ₹15,000 to GDP.
The Question: Who contributes more to society's wellbeing? Who gets counted in economic statistics? What happens if Rashida stops her unpaid work?
Key Statistics from India's Time Use Survey (2024):
Care work exists on a continuum from direct personal care to broader social reproduction activities that enable society to function.
Physical and emotional care for people
Examples: Feeding children, bathing elderly, nursing sick family members, emotional support
Household activities that support care
Examples: Cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, household management
Unpaid care work beyond the household
Examples: Volunteering at schools, caring for neighbors, community organizing
Market-based care services
Examples: Domestic workers, healthcare workers, teachers, childcare providers
Time-use surveys collect detailed information about how people spend their 24-hour day, through diaries or recall interviews that record activities in short time slots over one or more days. India's survey records 30-minute slots over the previous 24 hours.
Time diaries: Detailed 24-hour activity logs
Recall surveys: Questions about typical time allocation
Observation: Researchers document activities
Mobile apps: Digital time tracking tools
Primary activities: Main task being performed
Secondary activities: Simultaneous tasks (multitasking)
Location: Where activities take place
Co-presence: Who else is present/being cared for
SNA Production: Activities counted in GDP: paid work, unpaid work in a family enterprise, and goods produced for own use (including fetching water)
Non-SNA Production: Unpaid domestic and care services for one's own household, and volunteer services: a third party could do them for pay, but GDP leaves them out
Personal time: Self-care, leisure, learning
Community participation: Voluntary and social activities
First National Time Use Survey (2019), repeated in 2024: India now measures unpaid work through national time-use data
Key Innovations:
Policy Impact: First time India could accurately measure women's work participation rates including unpaid work
Individual Activity: Create your own time diary for yesterday
Instructions: Fill in your activities from wake-up to sleep in 30-minute blocks. For each activity, identify:
| Time | Primary Activity | Location | Care Work? | Secondary Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00-6:30 | _______ | _______ | _______ | _______ |
| 6:30-7:00 | _______ | _______ | _______ | _______ |
| 7:00-7:30 | _______ | _______ | _______ | _______ |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Reflection Questions:
Logic: What would it cost to hire someone to do this work?
Example: Childcare work valued at domestic worker wage or professional nanny wage
Pros: Easy to understand and calculate
Cons: May undervalue skilled care work
Logic: What income is foregone by doing unpaid work instead of paid work?
Example: Engineer doing childcare valued at engineer's hourly wage
Pros: Reflects individual's market value
Cons: Assumes everyone has paid work options
Logic: Value the output produced by unpaid work
Example: Home-cooked meal valued at restaurant price or nutritional content
Pros: Focuses on actual value created
Cons: Difficult to measure quality differences
Scenario: Priya spends 4 hours daily caring for her 2-year-old daughter (feeding, bathing, playing, supervision)
Method 1 - Replacement Cost (Domestic Worker):
Method 2 - Replacement Cost (Professional Childcare):
Method 3 - Opportunity Cost:
Result: The same work is valued at between ₹2.2 and 5.8 lakhs a year, depending on the method.
| Activity Type | Women (minutes/day) | Men (minutes/day) | Gender Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unpaid domestic services | 289 | 88 | 201 minutes (3.4 hours) |
| Care for household members | 137 | 75 | 62 minutes |
| Employment and related activities | 341 | 473 | -132 minutes (2.2 hours) |
| Learning | 413 | 415 | -2 minutes |
| Socializing, community participation and religious practice | 139 | 138 | 1 minute |
The "Double Burden" Reality: Even when women take up paid work, they keep most of the unpaid work. In 2024, 25% of women aged 15-59 took part in employment and related activities on the survey day (21.8% in 2019), yet women of that age who did unpaid domestic work still spent about 305 minutes a day on it (Time Use Survey 2024).
The care economy is a large and largely invisible sector that sustains all other economic activity. Time-use surveys make this work visible, and economic valuation puts a figure on its contribution. Gender equality in economic participation requires recognising, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work.
Foundational Texts:
South Asian Context:
Data Sources:
Next Steps in ImpactMojo:
This handout is part of the ImpactMojo 101 Knowledge Series
Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 • Free to use with attribution • www.impactmojo.in
For time-use analysis tools, valuation calculators, and Indian TUS datasets, visit the ImpactMojo platform.
