🔆 Women in the Domestic Sphere: Hidden Labour & Policy Gaps
📍 Context
✅ Claims of “nari shakti” and “women-led development” often ignore the harsh realities of women’s lives within the domestic sphere.
📍 Violence Against Women
✅ 7,000 women die every year (2017–22) due to dowry deaths.
✅ 30% women report intimate partner violence (NFHS-5), but only 14% approach police.
✅ 1/3rd of all crimes against women are cases of domestic violence.
📍 Unpaid Work (Time Use Survey, 2024)
✅ 93% women spend ~7 hrs/day on unpaid domestic work; 41% on caregiving.
✅ Men: 70% do no domestic work; those who do spend <1.5 hrs/day.
✅ In caregiving: 79% men do none; others spend ~1 hr/day.
➡️ On average, women work more total hours than men but get less rest, leisure, and recognition.
📍 Economic Implications
✅ Millions of Anganwadi, ASHA, and mid-day meal workers = treated as “volunteers” → given honorarium, not wages.
✅ SBI Report (2023): Monetising unpaid women’s work = 7% of GDP (~₹22.5 lakh crore).
✅ Caste & class analysis reveals labouring-class women bear higher burdens.
📍 Policy Concerns & Alternatives
✅ Prevent & eliminate violence against women within families.
✅ Equal work & wages for men and women as primary workers.
✅ Universal state-supported childcare & eldercare facilities.
✅ Accessible quality healthcare & education.
✅ Cultural shift: shared domestic responsibility.
✅ Justice for scheme workers → minimum wages + recognition as govt employees.
👉 Women’s unpaid labour sustains households and the economy — yet remains invisible. Recognising and restructuring the domestic sphere is central to gender equality and inclusive growth.
🔆 UPSC Civil Services Examination – Previous Year Questions (PYQ)
📍 Prelims
Q. Which of the following gives ‘Global Gender Gap Index’ ranking to the countries of the world? (2017)
(a) World Economic Forum
(b) UN Human Rights Council
(c) UN Women
(d) World Health Organization
Ans: (a)
📍 Mains
Q.1 “Empowering women is the key to control population growth”. Discuss. (2019)
Q.2 Discuss the positive and negative effects of globalization on women in India? (2015)
Q.3 Male membership needs to be encouraged in order to make women’s organizations free from gender bias. Comment. (2013)
Q.4 Distinguish between ‘care economy’ and ‘monetized economy’. How can the care economy be brought into a monetized economy through women empowerment? (2023)
#GS1 #Society #Women #Empowerment
📍 Context
✅ Claims of “nari shakti” and “women-led development” often ignore the harsh realities of women’s lives within the domestic sphere.
📍 Violence Against Women
✅ 7,000 women die every year (2017–22) due to dowry deaths.
✅ 30% women report intimate partner violence (NFHS-5), but only 14% approach police.
✅ 1/3rd of all crimes against women are cases of domestic violence.
📍 Unpaid Work (Time Use Survey, 2024)
✅ 93% women spend ~7 hrs/day on unpaid domestic work; 41% on caregiving.
✅ Men: 70% do no domestic work; those who do spend <1.5 hrs/day.
✅ In caregiving: 79% men do none; others spend ~1 hr/day.
➡️ On average, women work more total hours than men but get less rest, leisure, and recognition.
📍 Economic Implications
✅ Millions of Anganwadi, ASHA, and mid-day meal workers = treated as “volunteers” → given honorarium, not wages.
✅ SBI Report (2023): Monetising unpaid women’s work = 7% of GDP (~₹22.5 lakh crore).
✅ Caste & class analysis reveals labouring-class women bear higher burdens.
📍 Policy Concerns & Alternatives
✅ Prevent & eliminate violence against women within families.
✅ Equal work & wages for men and women as primary workers.
✅ Universal state-supported childcare & eldercare facilities.
✅ Accessible quality healthcare & education.
✅ Cultural shift: shared domestic responsibility.
✅ Justice for scheme workers → minimum wages + recognition as govt employees.
👉 Women’s unpaid labour sustains households and the economy — yet remains invisible. Recognising and restructuring the domestic sphere is central to gender equality and inclusive growth.
🔆 UPSC Civil Services Examination – Previous Year Questions (PYQ)
📍 Prelims
Q. Which of the following gives ‘Global Gender Gap Index’ ranking to the countries of the world? (2017)
(a) World Economic Forum
(b) UN Human Rights Council
(c) UN Women
(d) World Health Organization
Ans: (a)
📍 Mains
Q.1 “Empowering women is the key to control population growth”. Discuss. (2019)
Q.2 Discuss the positive and negative effects of globalization on women in India? (2015)
Q.3 Male membership needs to be encouraged in order to make women’s organizations free from gender bias. Comment. (2013)
Q.4 Distinguish between ‘care economy’ and ‘monetized economy’. How can the care economy be brought into a monetized economy through women empowerment? (2023)
#GS1 #Society #Women #Empowerment
❤11