Time-poverty and Health Outcome of Indian Couples: A Case Study from West Bengal, India

A time-use survey was conducted among the married couples from sampled households chosen through a multistage-sampling technique from selected villages of West Bengal, India. Based on the time-use survey the present study focuses on the intra-household distribution of time and time-poverty and the relationship between time poverty and health outcome. The multiple regression techniques are used to identify the key variables associated with time-poverty. Also, determinants of health outcomes are identified while considering time-poverty as an endogenous regressor. We observe that the incidence, depth and severity of time-poverty are high among the income poor. There exists a gender gap in time-poverty against employed women who are 21.5% more probable to be time poor than the male members in the household. Further, the committed-time and the incidence of time-poverty is significantly high among individuals from families that hold assets and have children. Surprisingly, the time poor women are 32% more likely to have good health, when we are controlling for their employment status and other socio-economic variables and employed women are 17% less likely to have good health vis-à-vis the homemakers. Finally, women from families that use clean cooking fuel have good health compared to energy-poor households.