Archive · 25 Aug 2026
Indian Households Face Growing Gender Gap in Domestic Labour
In many Indian homes, girls and women do much more unpaid housework than boys and men.
Young boys and girls do about the same amount of domestic work when they are six.
As children grow older, girls are given more chores.
By age 17, girls spend about 130 minutes a day on these tasks, while boys spend less than 17 minutes.
Women around age 30 can spend more than seven and a half hours a day doing unpaid domestic work.
The chores often include cooking, cleaning, laundry and caring for others.
This can leave girls with less time for school, rest and play.
The editorial says everyone in a household should share these responsibilities more fairly.
Girls begin taking on more domestic work from around age 10, while six-year-old boys and girls spend about five minutes daily on such tasks.
By age 17, girls spend about 130 minutes a day on domestic work, while boys never exceed 17 minutes.
At age 30, women’s unpaid domestic work exceeds 7.5 hours daily, compared with less than 65 minutes for men.
Girls and women more often perform repetitive chores such as cooking, cleaning and laundry, while boys and men are assigned occasional outside errands.
The editorial argues that unequal domestic responsibilities harm women’s education, rest, health and economic participation, and should become a shared responsibility.
- Who
- Girls, boys, women and men in Indian households, with comparisons involving families in Europe.
- What
- An analysis highlights a widening gender gap in unpaid domestic and caregiving work, especially household chores.
- When
- The figures are drawn from Time Use Survey 2025 data; the article also cites UNICEF’s analysis of the 2019 Time Use Survey and the 2021 Gender Equality Index.
- Where
- India, with a comparison to data from Western countries and Europe.
- Why
- Domestic work is shaped by discriminatory gender norms, poverty, limited crèche facilities and expectations that girls and women should carry greater care responsibilities.
- Age six
- Boys and girls spend about five minutes a day on domestic work.
- Age 17
- Girls spend about 130 minutes daily on domestic work; boys never exceed 17 minutes.
- Women at age 30
- Unpaid domestic work peaks at more than 7.5 hours a day.
- Men at age 30
- Unpaid domestic work remains below 65 minutes a day.
- Common tasks for girls and women
- Cooking, cleaning, laundry and caregiving.
- European comparison
- The Gender Equality Index 2021: Health says 91% of women with children spend at least an hour daily on housework, compared with 30% of men with children.
- Economic implication
- The editorial says greater female work participation could augment India’s GDP growth, but domestic chores must be shared.