Under the present regime, when a myriad socio-economic and political challenges confront the people of India, developments in the “domestic sphere” are often put on the back burner in agendas of resistance. This allows those who are in power to hijack the concept of “nari shakti” and make claims of “women-led development” even as they keep intact an entirely regressive approach to women in the “domestic sphere”. The latest example of this is a statement by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief, in August 2025, where he said that in order to ensure the “survival of the civilization”, families need to have at least three children — as though women are reproduction machines with little or no choice. It would have been more appropriate for Mohan Bhagwat to have spoken about the survival of families and, specifically, of women within the home.
An inexplicable silence
An average of 7,000 women have died every year, from 2017 to 2022, in horrendous cases where they are burnt — legally known as dowry deaths. So, 35,000 women are dead — it is not only their sindoor that has been wiped out; a woman’s life has been terminated. The National Family Health Survey-5 noted that 30% of the women surveyed reported violence by an intimate partner but only 14% made a police complaint. A third of the over 4.45 lakh cases of registered crimes against women are of domestic violence. But have you heard even one word being spoken by even a single RSS or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, man or woman, against violence within the home? These are the people who are loud and clear in speaking against consensual inter-community relationships — which they term as love jihad — but never say a word about any instance of violence within the home or within the community as this would not fit in with the majoritarian ideology based on the Manu Smriti which they expound.
There has been little change since the days when the manuvadi forefathers of those now in power railed against B.R. Ambedkar for the “demolition of Hindu ideology”, for his proposals in the Hindu Reform Bills granting women the right to divorce and abolishing caste as a requirement for a valid marriage. Cultures that pressurise women to stay in violent marriages, to “adjust” because of the sacramental nature of marriage”, that condone, through their silence, so-called honour crimes in self-choice inter-caste marriages are intrinsic to the ideological platform of the Hindutva eco-system today. We can see this in efforts to dilute laws against domestic violence in the name of “misuse” and also the official argument in the Supreme Court case opposing the demand to criminalise marital rape as being “against the institution of marriage” and “Indian culture”.
Another aspect of the “domestic sphere” — the work women do within and outside the home — has been highlighted by the recent Time Use survey (TUS) 2024. The percentage of men and women in different activities has been calculated using the average age of all those surveyed. Taking the age group (15-59 years) of all the women surveyed, 25% were in “employment and related activities” working an average of five hours. The percentage of women working in family enterprises was 23%; women in this category put in a little less than two hours of work. The work done in these two categories is recognised to be economically productive and is included in the System of National Accounts (SNA). The corresponding data for men are an average of 75% men in the first category, working on an average of eight hours a day. In family enterprises, 14% of men work for an average of two hours a day. That is the end of the work day for the majority of men.
Women and the burden of work
The TUS lists two other work-related categories — unpaid domestic services (cooking, cleaning, washing) and unpaid caregiving services. Here, 93% of all women put in an average of seven hours a day in the first category and 41% of women put in two and a half hours in unpaid domestic care. The corresponding figure for men is that 70% of men do not do any domestic work. The 30% who do domestic work, put in less than one and a half hours a day. In the unpaid caregiving category, 79% of men do no “unpaid caregiving” while the 21% who do, put in an average of an hour and 14 minutes a day. If one takes the average for all men, one has this data: in the “domestic sphere” men do 26 minutes of domestic work in a day and less than 16 minutes of unpaid care giving.
The TUS has other categories but taking them all together, the conclusion is that the total working hours put in by women are more than men, and that women spend less time in eating, sleeping, and leisure than men. These are the basics. Further analysis will show the division of work in different income groups, especially for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste men and women. Such a study would reveal the class and caste differences in the use of time, with women of the labouring classes shouldering a disproportionately higher share of work than men.
One has to look at the utter hypocrisy of the Narendra Modi government in its presentation of the survey findings. Months before the full report was published, the official government agency, the Press Information Bureau, in its press release dated February 25, 2025 (with a summary of the survey) headlined it as: “More acknowledgement of care-giving activities regardless of gender in Indian families”. Further, the inequalities in time use were sought to be glorified with the line, “…This corroborates the Indian social fabric wherein most of the care-giving responsibilities for household members are borne by the females of the household.” As far as the official viewpoint of the BJP government is concerned, that men give any time at all for care-giving, even if it is for an average of just 15 minutes, shows the greatness of the “Indian family”, and that women do three times the work in domestic and care-giving as men is something to be proud of — i.e., the Indian social fabric.
In an extension of this approach to public policy, the millions of women who take on the responsibility of child-care services in anganwadi, mid-day meal services and as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), are considered to be “social volunteers” and not workers. They are given a measly amount as an honorarium and not as a minimum wage. Finally, they are not recognised as government employees. Thus, what is considered to be a “natural” task for women in the domestic sphere gets translated into low-wage work in care services in the public sphere.
A gross undervaluation
Such an approach suits the capitalist too. The State Bank of India, in a survey in 2023, showed that if unpaid work done by women was monetised it would amount to over 7% of the country’s GDP or ₹22.5 lakh crore a year. It also points to the undervaluation of the essential role played by a woman’s unpaid domestic work in the social reproduction of labour. Her work is not considered when a minimum wage is fixed. Typically, such a wage covers the bare subsistence needs of a worker and family, to keep him healthy enough to work the next day too. This “subsistence “ level is actually subsidised by the woman’s unaccounted for and invisibilised domestic and care-giving work. The invisible component of a woman’s domestic work is what keeps the cost of subsistence and wages low. Thus, the struggle for a fair minimum wage has a direct relation to recognition of the invisible work that women do.
The policies of the government have a direct impact on the “domestic sphere” and need to be called out. The alternative lies in: first, cultural, social and policy interventions to prevent and eliminate violence against women within families; second, the equal right to work of men and women as primary workers with equal wages; third, the provision of easily accessible universal facilities for the care of children and the aged provided by the state; fourth, the provision of quality health care and education facilities; fifth, the promotion of cultures which encourage the sharing of domestic responsibility between men and women as opposed to the “social fabric” argument of the right-wing forces, and finally, justice to all scheme workers in child care and health services for minimum wages and benefits as government employees.
Brinda Karat is a senior leader of the CPI(M)
Published – September 09, 2025 12:16 am IST