Economic Survey 2025-26: Women are predominant caregivers, a lot of their activity time goes unpaid

Economic Survey 2025-26’s insights are a stark reminder of the unfairness and inequality in women labour participation. Women do the work, perhaps more than men, but at the same time fetch lesser pay than their male counterparts. 

The survey reiterated what is a well-known fact – women are the primary caregivers. The Economic Survey detailed that while 41 per cent of women aged between 15-59 years, which is the working-age population, participated in caregiving for their household members, the same for men in the same age group was 21.4 per cent. 

“Female participants spent about 140 minutes daily in caregiving activities, compared to 74 minutes spent by male participants aged 15-59 years,” the survey added.

And then the other part – more female activity time remained unpaid. “Females spent, on average, 363 minutes a day on unpaid activities, while males spent only around 123 minutes a day on unpaid activities. Consequently, male participants spent 414 minutes a day in paid activities, against 302 minutes spent by female participants,” it said. 

“The combined time spent on paid and unpaid activities by female members is higher than that of men. Female household members spend significantly more time on unpaid activities than men. While women participating in paid work contribute a considerable amount of time, their overall participation remains lower than that of men,” said the survey. 

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) used the findings of the Time Use Survey (TUS) to ascertain the division of labour. The survey said that due to high dual burden in terms of caregiving activities and unpaid work, women desire or are inclined towards flexible work models. 

The Economic Survey 2025-26 showed that the proportion of women engaged in self-employment or contributing to household enterprises, especially in rural areas, is relatively high. “Women’s participation in regular wage jobs is 10.8 per cent in Q2 FY26 in rural areas, coinciding with a major share of women working as ‘own account workers/employers’ (37.5 per cent) or ‘helpers in household enterprises’ (34.2 per cent). These patterns highlight a tendency among female workers towards independent work and entrepreneurship, which offers flexibility,” stated the survey.