Leisure Time Use Is 71% In India

The average Indian spends only 18 per cent of time per week on productive activities, while 71 per cent of the time is spent on learning, leisure and personal care, according to the first Time Use Survey conducted by the Central Statistical Organisation. The balance 11 per cent of time per week is spent on activities which contribute to economic production, but are outside the production boundary and cannot be included in measurement of National Income. The survey also finds that women are working for longer hours than men. In fact, 55 per cent of the total work, is done by women, according to the survey which covered 18,591 households in the six states of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya. The Time Use Survey technique provides detailed information on how individuals spend their time, on a daily or weekly basis. It is emerging as an important tool for measuring paid and unpaid work of men and women in a society. In a developing country like India, time use surveys are expected to provide data on market oriented economic activities which are not included in the labour force or in national income accounts due to the inadequacy of concepts and method of conventional surveys. This is the first time a time use survey has been conducted in a developing country. According to the pilot study carried out by the CSO, out of a total of 168 hours in the week, the average Indian male spends about 42 hours on System of National Accounts (SNA) activities as compared to only about 19 hours by females. SNA activities consist of primary production activities like crop farming and animal husbandry, secondary activities like construction and activities like trade, business and services. However, the situation completely changes when we consider extended SNA activities. In these, males spend only about 3.6 hours as compared to 34.6 hours by females. Therefore females spend about ten times more time in extended activities as compared to males. Extended SNA activities include household maintenance, care for children, sick and elderly. However, only SNA activities are included in the measurement of national income and extended SNA activities are not. This implies that womens' contribution to the GDP is underestimated. In non-SNA activities, which pertain to learning, social and cultural activities, mass media, personal care and self maintenance, males spend about 8 hours more than females. The difference was marked in rural areas, where men spent 121.98 hours in non-SNA activities per week, whereas, rural women spent only 111.50 hours. In urban areas, the difference is marginal, with men one hour more in non-SNA activities. If SNA and extended SNA activities are taken together, the average time spent by rural males is only 46.05 hours compared to 56.48 hours by rural females. For urban males, the figure is 44.50 hours as opposed to 45.60 hours for urban females. Therefore, women are found to be working for longer hours than men. In fact, the survey finds that women do 55 per cent of the total work of men and women. If extended SNA activities are included in economic activities, the contribution of women will be higher as compared to men. The time use pattern for males was not found to be significantly different in rural and urban areas. However, female participation in SNA activities, was much lower in urban areas (5 per cent) than the 13 per cent in rural areas. This may because rural women generally participate in agriculture, which is treated as SNA activity.