Examining the Distribution and Factors Associated with Unpaid Care Work in India: Evidence from Time Use Survey 2019

The contribution of unpaid care work in any society remains crucial for its survival, yet such activity goes largely unrecognized. Consequently, people carrying out these activities, mostly women, become inconsequential and invisible. Time use surveys (TUS) play a pivotal role in documenting the contribution of unpaid care work. This article employs India’s first nationally representative TUS 2019 to estimate the volume and distribution of unpaid care work and its components, namely, unpaid domestic care and unpaid direct care. The analysis reveals a massive gender gap in the distribution and components of unpaid care work and, moreover, shows how it is related to major demographic, socioeconomic and household-level variables. Tobit analysis is used to introduce a wider set of variables associated with unpaid care work and identify strategies that may reduce its burden.