Across the globe, unpaid domestic and caregiving work remains an unseen yet essential contributor to economic and social well-being. Women, in particular, dedicate significant hours to household tasks and caregiving, yet this labour remains excluded from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations, leading to its undervaluation in policy and economic planning. According to the estimates made using the 2024 Time Use Survey (TUS), women’s unpaid care and domestic work in India represents an economic loss of almost 15%-17% of the GDP. The survey also highlights a stark gender disparity in unpaid work, revealing that women in India spend nearly seven hours daily on domestic and caregiving tasks—comparable to a full-time job. Despite its immense value, estimated at up to 9% of global GDP (USD 11 trillion) by the ILO, unpaid work remains outside mainstream economic metrics. In this article, we discuss the minutiae of the survey, while making a case for recognizing and measuring this contribution in the nation’s GDP estimates.

About the Survey
The TUS survey captures how individuals allocate their time across various activities—whether paid, unpaid, or other engagements. The objective of the survey is to measure the participation of people in different activities, and then to measure the time spent on these activities with the objective of providing crucial insights into distribution of labour in society. The 2024 survey is the second edition, with the first conducted in 2019.

The Stark Reality of Unpaid Work
 

Figure 1:This figure represents the time spent by a male, female and average person on paid and unpaid activities including domestic work and caregiving.
Source: Time Use Survey, 2024

The 2024 report, like its 2019 predecessor, highlights a persistent gender disparity in unpaid domestic labour and unpaid caregiving services. Unpaid domestic work includes all forms of household activities done in the home for the members of the household, such as preparation of food, shopping food and other items, and collecting fuel and water. Unpaid caregiving workincludes all types of care work including child care and elderly care. Approximately 81% of women continue to be involved in unpaid domestic work. On average, women spend 289 minutes a day in unpaid domestic work, compared to 88 minutes spent by men and 137 minutes in unpaid caregiving work compared to 75 minutes spent by men (see Figure 1).

This implies that women dedicate nearly seven hours daily to unpaid activities—almost equivalent to a full-time salaried job. This is in stark contrast to the hours spent by women in Australia who spent 4.5 hours a day, Japan where they spend 3.6 hours, and Hong Kong where they spend 2.6 hours a day in unpaid work. However, since caregiving and domestic labour remain outside conventional economic metrics like GDP, their economic value remains unrecognized. This exclusion not only distorts national income estimates but also reflects societal biases in valuing work.

Development Alone Will Not Bridge This Gap
Some experts argue that as wages rise, particularly for women, the opportunity cost of unpaid work will increase, leading to a natural decline in unpaid labour. However, the TUS data contradicts this assumption. If urbanization and rising wages were sufficient to reduce unpaid work, participation rates in unpaid domestic services should be lower in urban areas. Instead, the survey shows minimal difference: The average time spent by a participant in unpaid work is similar—356 minutes in rural areas and 349 minutes in urban areas. Thus, economic growth alone is unlikely to significantly reduce the burden of unpaid labour, necessitating deliberate policy interventions.

The Case for Recognizing Unpaid Work in GDP
The participation gap in paid and unpaid work remains striking: 81% of women engage in unpaid domestic work compared to 27% of men, while 21% of women participate in paid employment versus 61% of men. Recognizing unpaid domestic and caregiving work in GDP calculations would not only acknowledge women’s economic contributions but also create incentives for redistributing this labour more equitably.

The need for this inclusion is gaining global recognition. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates the value of unpaid care and domestic work to be as high as 9% of global GDP (USD 11 trillion). Similarly, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) reports that the contribution of unpaid work ranges between 5.5% and 41.3% of GDP across different countries.

Even though no country formally includes the same in their official GDP estimates, models like the TUS and satellite accounts are used to come up with the value of this out-of-market work.

 
Figure 2: The above figure represents the participation rate of men, women and average person in paid work vs unpaid work including domestic and caregiving work.
Source: Time Use Survey, 2024

A Growing Trend Across Genders
An important statistic from the report is the overall increase in unpaid work participation across both genders. Between 2019 and 2024, women’s participation in unpaid caregiving rose from 28% to 34%, but even among men, it grew from 14% to 18% (see Figure 2). Similarly, male participation in unpaid domestic services rose from 26% to 27%, while female participation remained roughly constant at 81%. This increasing participation suggests that unpaid labour is not just a women’s issue but a broader economic concern. Including caregiving and domestic services in GDP estimates would not only elevate women’s contributions but could also pave the way for a more gender-neutral acknowledgment of unpaid labour. Ultimately, recognizing this work is essential to ensuring caregivers—regardless of gender—receive the dignity and value they deserve.

Samriddhi Prakash is a Research Associate, Payal Seth is an Associate Fellow and Ashish Kumar is a Distinguished Fellow, at Pahlé India Foundation. Ashish Kumar was also the former Director General at MoSPI.