Survey on 24 hours spent by Indians on anvil

Will also measure work done by housewives in 24 hours to keep check on 'unpaid productive work'

Ever tried to keep a check on how much time do you spend travelling in a day? Or how many hours do men and women spend in gossiping?  

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is trying to capture just that, by coming up with a Time Use survey in the summer of 2013 to assess what people do in 24 hours of a day. 

The survey will also measure multiple tasks that women perform in their houses during 24 hours as it does not even get measured in the Gross Domestic Product. In this way, the survey will measure ‘unpaid productive work’.

 

Already being carried out in developed countries, India will join the league and will conduct a pilot run in two states--Gujarat and Bihar— in December this year. The pilot, to be run by MoSPI along with states statistics bureaus, will help the ministry to go for an All-India survey next year.

“The pilot will be done in three towns and three villages of these two states by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) under MoSPI, which will be followed by an All-India survey in 2013”, said S R Hashim, chairman, of the expert committee to conduct Time Use Survey.

Chief statistician TCA Anant said this would measure households from the view point of their actual time disposal over a day. “So, you look at the people and say what do they do in each hour of a day”.

 

The survey is used for a variety of purposes but one of its attractiveness is measuring contribution of women, because lot of women do multiple tasks in a day.

 

This is considered a drawback of GDP, that it doesn’t take into consideration imputed cost, or contribution of women at home.

However, Time Use survey is not only for women, explained Anant.

 

It will also measure, say how much time does one send on travelling in a day. “It  gives you measure as to how this travel time varies according to locations, it gives you measures how efficient your transport system is’, he said. As such, it would give important feedback to authorities as to how to upgrade transport system of area concerned.

 

Similarly, the employment data that we get now is not very accurate, said Hashim. “The time-use survey will supplement the employment data to assess the workers actually doing productive work and those doing unproductive work.”

 

A faint attempt was made in early 1990s to conduct time-use survey in India, but it could not go beyond a pilot.

 

Findings of the pilot blew a myth that women gossip more than men. Almost about  one hour was spent by both men and women per day in gossiping and talking, suggested the pilot conducted in 1998-99 in six states.

 

Hashim said since that pilot is more than a decade old now,  a fresh one will be conducted  in December 2012.

 

Sixty-two countries conducted at least one national or pilot Time Use survey in the period 1990-2008, according to the information collected by the United Nations Statistics Division.

 

Time Use statistics helps exploring a wide range of policy concerns such as division of labour, allocation of time for household work, estimation of the value of household production, transportation, leisure and recreation, pension plans, and health-care programmes, etc.

 

Measuring the time use of individuals and families was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century with a purpose to address different social concerns related to the use of labour force, early industrialization and its effects on society.