Only 6.1% Indian men participate in cooking, reveals Time Use Survey

Most women have revealed they take part in some cooking on a daily basis.

Nearly 84 percent women spend their work hours on activities they do not get paid for, while the reverse holds true for men, as they spend 80 percent of their work hours on activities they get paid for, showed the Time Use Survey conducted by the National Statistical Office in 2019.

Spending most of their time at work leaves men with less hours to spend on unpaid household chores, with only 6.1 percent men in India participating in activities like cooking, while most women have revealed they take part in some cooking on a daily basis.

Similarly, only 8 percent men participate in cleaning the house and just 3 percent wash clothes.

However, 87 percent men participate in leisure activities, showed the survey, the results of which were released in September.

As part of the survey, around 4.5 lakh people aged above six were questioned on how they spend their days.

“In places where patriarchal norms around division of labour are rigid, they create gendered spaces within the household. In many such households, if a man walks into the kitchen, it is considered odd or wrong. It isn't paid work that is preventing them from sharing household work,” India Today quoted Ashwini Deshpande, feminist labour economist, as saying.

As a result of this gendered division of labour, women are left with very less time to socialise or sleep. An average adult woman sleeps 13 minutes lesser every night, the Time Use Survey India revealed.

Time Use Surveys are conducted in countries across the world to assess and quantify the amount of time groups of people spend in a day on paid and unpaid labour.