Time Spent on Unpaid Domestic and Caregiving Services by Children in India
Insights into gender, age and learning
Highlights
Various forms of child labour persist in many regions of the world, with negative consequences for children’s schooling and overall development. For example, unpaid caregiving and domestic services within the family, when carried out for many hours, can disrupt children’s learning, rest, or play. Girls are more likely to be affected, as they are more intensively engaged in such services than boys.
In the context of India, girls’ engagement in long hours of unpaid caregiving and domestic services was found to be closely associated to the gender gap in education later in life. Such work is often related to poverty, absence of crèche facilities, as well as social norms placing higher care responsibility on girls.
Drawing on India’s Time Use Survey 2019, this paper further explores the engagement in unpaid domestic and caregiving services among children aged 6–17 years in India, and its association with learning activities. It examines how these outcomes vary by gender, age and location (rural or urban). The paper concludes with reflections on policy actions that can support a change in social norms and an expansion in social services to ensure India’s children, especially girls, are supported in their schooling and overall development.
