Note for Bombay HC: Domestic work is not women’s responsibility alone – The Indian Express

Let’s think about this statement in the context of the unpaid, domestic and care work that India’s women handle every day.

The average Indian woman spends 335 minutes, i.e, 5.5 hours, daily on domestic labour, compared to 40 minutes by men. At 8x, this gendered imbalance is considerably higher than the global average of 3x.

Cooking, cleaning and childcare take up nearly 85 per cent of women’s time spent on domestic labour. Women, as compared to men, spend 29x more time on food preparation and management, 12x on cleaning, 3x on childcare, and 2x on care for elderly/dependent adults.

Men’s participation in domestic labour is also dismal. Nearly 92 per cent of working-age women (15-59 years) undertake domestic services for household members daily, versus a little less than a third of men. Married women spend a far higher proportion of their time on unpaid, domestic work compared to women who have never married, are divorced, or are widowed. Married women spend 52 per cent of their waking hours on domestic work compared to 12 per cent by women who have never married. On the other hand, married men spend 6 per cent and men who have never married spend 3 per cent of their waking hours on domestic work activities.

This gender-based imbalance in unpaid, domestic labour is often the pivotal reason for “time poverty”, which leaves married women with little time to pursue paid employment. Inadequate care infrastructure and services, coupled with a lack of partner and family support exacerbate this issue, often resulting in married women leaving the workforce.

Despite the persistence of this skewed burden, we hear remarks from the judiciary that suggest domestic labour is a woman’s responsibility, going so far as to say that a man can rethink his decision to marry if the woman declines to undertake household work. Is it not incumbent upon men to take equal responsibility, share the load, and manage domestic duties with their wives?

Having said that, there are some mainstream politicians (remember Kamal Haasan?) and judges who are beginning to recognise the disproportionate burden of domestic work that women bear, even making it an election issue in states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam. The Supreme Court also recently directed an insurance firm to estimate the value of homemakers’ notional income.
Building on this momentum, governments, the private sector and community-based organisations (CBOs) can come together on a series of complementary measures to recognise the value of domestic labour and shift gender norms to rebalance the burden of unpaid work.

This can be done by, first, investing in the care economy. India spends less than 1% of its GDP on care work infrastructure and services, including pre-primary education, maternity, disability and sickness benefits, and long-term care. Governments can increase budgetary support for affordable child-care services, and elderly and disability care facilities. Care facilities also may be established on PPP basis with CBOs for efficient service delivery and financial support from private sector philanthropies and CSR. Women can be recruited for a majority of jobs created under such schemes.

Second, there is a need to formalise working conditions, establish minimum wages, and working hours for India’s 80 million domestic workers (the vast majority being women), and 2.5 million women Anganwadi workers (AWWs), auxiliary nurse-midwives (ANMs) and accredited social-health activists (ASHAs) — the largest groups of care workers, who presently work informally. Moreover, skill training and formal job roles for care workers should also be introduced.

Third, governments can start a subsidised family care leave policy for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), subsidising maternity, paternity and family care leave required by MSME employees, especially for low-wage workers. Similar policies can also be formulated for informal and gig workers. Corporates can introduce similar policies within their organisations.

Fourth, there is a need to change social attitudes. Social norms casting women in the role of homemaker discourage men from taking responsibility in the home. Male actors, politicians, sportspersons and other role models should promote equal participation in housework through innovative messaging via mass media campaigns and social media.

For India to bridge the gender gap in women’s labour force participation and add nearly $770 billion to the GDP by 2025, domestic labour must be valued, and become a shared responsibility. Indian men need to become equal partners in sharing the load of unpaid work so that India’s women can join the paid workforce and build an independent identity outside the confines of their homes.

The writer is the founder and chief economist at Nikore Associates. Research assistance was provided by Unmuktman Singh and Mannat Sharma, research associates, Nikore Associates