Women's unpaid domestic work and its economic impact: Why Rahul Gandhi's comments strike a chord

During a Lok Sabha Elections 2024 rally, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed an overlooked issue: women's unpaid domestic labour burden. Rahul Gandhi highlighted the stark reality faced by women across the nation, pointing out that while they spend 8 hours outside the home in paid employment, they also dedicate another 8 hours to unpaid domestic work within the confines of their households.

Rahul Gandhi's acknowledgement of the unpaid domestic labour issue, long championed by activists and advocates, resonated with netizens, who celebrated the rare acknowledgement from an 'Indian male politician'.

An SBI analysis from 2023 provides a staggering revelation: the total value of this unpaid labour amounts to a staggering ₹22.7 lakh crore, equivalent to almost 7.5% of India's GDP. Rural areas account for ₹14.7 lakh crore of this contribution, with urban areas adding ₹8.0 lakh crore. 

A survey published by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad showed that women in the age group 15-60 spend 7.2 hours on unpaid domestic work, compared to men who spend 2.8 hours, thereby hinting at the 'time poverty' experienced by women. 

In India, women are often engaged in unpaid domestic work because of three factors: constraints (social and religious), choices (failure of the market and states to provide essential provisioning), and career (low opportunity cost of unpaid work in the market).

According to experts at TQH Consulting, Congress MP from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi addressing the issue at an Lok Sabha Election 2024 rally holds relevance owing to the increasing female electorate in India. 

“Women as an electorate have become more important than ever. Research from TQH on women electors suggests that more women have become a part of the electorate than men between 2019 and 2024, and that 11 states currently have more female electors. Against this backdrop, we are seeing that issues addressing their concerns are coming to the fore across speeches and poll promises. Given the deeply unequal burden of unpaid care work on women, it is important that the issue is being acknowledged and discussed.”, says experts at TQH Consulting.

Domestic Labour: An Economic Entity

Early economists refused to include domestic labour in the mainstream economy. Classical and Neo-Classical theorists deemed domestic labour not an economic or market good, thereby keeping it out of the production factor category.

Classical economists also excluded unpaid domestic labour from calculating national income, describing it as "part of housewives’ production.”

A feminist economic transformation, as proposed by J Matthaei in 2001, would have to start with dismantling gender polarisation in paid and unpaid labour, wherein paid work is assigned to men and unpaid work to women. This would then transition into a stage of 'Gender Freedom ', a state where women are not confined to unpaid work but can also enter the paid labour domain and claim equal rights with men. While these two stages have been achieved, the third stage of 'Gender Integration' seems like a pipe dream in an otherwise patriarchal society. 

Gender Integration would include men and women endeavouring to integrate paid and unpaid work. 

How does domestic labour qualify as an economic entity?

Domestic labour done by women qualifies for ‘division of labour’, the basis of an economic structure. Further, domestic labour takes time and energy for a purpose and has an opportunity cost. Finally, domestic labour is separable from the work of the worker and can be done by others; hence, unpaid domestic work can also be distributed among different sexes. 

Unpaid Domestic Labour: Possible Policy Changes

“The numbers reveal that it is not that women aren’t working, but rather that some of their work is done privately, hidden from what is formally counted. However, recognising women’s contributions is only one part of the puzzle. It is equally vital to consider measures to reduce and redistribute this work so that the bulk does not fall solely on women. This would involve investing in infrastructure and technologies that simultaneously reduce time burdens and drudgery often stemming from tasks such as water and firewood collection, paternity leave provisions to get men more involved in parenting, creating an expanded public and private care ecosystem both for children and elderly parents, and proactive work on gender norms through the education system”, says Sonakshi Chaudhary, Manager Strategic Partnership and Comms at TQH Consulting.