The new Bollywood movie – the lady – once again put a blatant truth: even in well -educated families in India, the role of women is often limited to unpaid domestic action.
She finds the protagonist, married to a gynecologist, is the same in an endless course of cooking, cleaning and progress. Her dreams are not marginalized by force, but by criticism that is unavoidable and calm.
While the film, which is a new version of the Malayalam The Great Indian Kitchen movie, sparked a conversation – and a retreat, especially men on social media – echo its topics with difficult data.
A recent government investigative study revealed that Indian women spend more than seven hours a day on local and unpaid work – more than twice the time that men do. The data indicates that women spend 289 minutes on an unpaid homework and 137 minutes to provide unpaid care, while men spend 88 minutes on household chores and 75 minutes of care.
They also spent less time than men who do paid and engage in self -care.
The disappointing thing is that the last survey of this six -year -old had similar results. Although the government launches campaigns to empower women, the situation has not changed much.
In many Indian families, domestic action is seen as a woman’s job [Getty Images]
The time of India follows surveys (TUS) how people spend their time in various activities. Surprises collect data worldwide by asking individuals between the ages of six to 59 years how they spent the day before. The first tus was released in 2019, with the second publication last week.
When the government released results from the second use of use (TUS), it highlighted a main seizure: women between the ages of 15 and 59 spent 10 minutes in unpaid domestic work, while their participation in employment and relevant activities increased by a slightly more than three percentage points.
The survey concluded that this represents a “unpaid shift to paid activities” for women – a positive sign that they spend less time on local business and more time in paid work.
However, economists argue that this is not necessarily true. Even if this is the case, the simple decline in domestic work indicates that women are still wandering in paid jobs with a heavier than the unpaid work of men.
Ashwini Despande, a professor of economics at the University of Ashoka, says that TU data should be analyzed along with the FLFPR work rate to understand how women spend their time. FLFPR measures the percentage of women between 15 years and over the workforce.
According to government data, FLFPR grew from about 23 % in 2017-2018 to 37 % in 2022-2023. Professor Deshpande says this increase is not only due to the increase in job opportunities for women, but also driven by economic distress.
Professor Descpende says: “Women do not wait for their time to spend it on homework to reduce jobs. Research shows that women want to work to complete the family income, and therefore they end up doing” double decomposition “, and they do paid out of the home and unpaid work at home.”
Indian women are not alone in stimulating an impatient share of homework and progress – it is a global reality. However, the gap at the time you spend in homework is much broader in India.
When women spend the world about 2.8 hours more than men in homework and care, for Indian women, this difference is closer to four hours.
This sociologists attribute this to the deep patriarchal community in India, which continues to impose strict sexual standards. Even among the educated elite, women remain confined to the roles that men supported, but also by women, but also by women.
This strict enforcement of sexual roles not only constitutes a woman’s life – it also constitutes the way stories are received.
Working women themselves find themselves to reconcile household chores and their jobs [Getty Images]
Therefore, while the lady struck a tendon with many, she also faced sharp criticism – especially men on social media.
The men’s rights group accused her of “spreading toxicity” against traditional joint families, while others have completely rejected their hypothesis.
Kajol Srinvasan, a comedy based in Mumbai, says the film destroys feathers because it carried an uncomfortable mirror for society.
The BBC told how her father, who left his forty -year -old job to take over the duties of homes while her mother continued to work, quickly realized that household chores were not an easy task.
“In the first week that was excited, he was cooking different dishes and cleaning the deep house,” she says.
But then he started finding the work boring and could not continue a week.
“My father realized that household chores were not only from work, but also a balance of power. The force remains always with the breadwinner, regardless of how long they are, there are no prizes,” she says.
She believes that women are expecting and grew up in accepting this low stairs of power.
“When Indian men talk about what they like in their wives and mothers, it is often a great relationship with the extent of their sacrifice for them, their care, or the home,” said Srenaifasan.
Indian time use survey shows that social change is slow, and it may take time before women spend less on homework.
Meanwhile, movies like Mrs Spark talks about daily questions that many prefer – such as, who do dishes?
