More Indian women take up jobs, and still shoulder most household chores

Gender disparities in household chores persist in India despite increasing urban women's participation in paid employment.

While an increasing number of urban women are entering paid employment, the share of them who do unpaid household work, such as cooking, shopping, and caring for children and the elderly, has also grown. This means that the deep gender divide in doing household chores largely remains unchanged in India.

Although more urban men are participating in domestic work now, with the share going up considerably in recent years, the gender divide persists as the share of such women is already very high and growing. Notably, these trends are consistent across most States, with the exception of some north-eastern States, where a relatively higher proportion of urban men participate in household chores.

Chart 1 shows the share of urban men and women (above six years of age) who did paid work in India in 2019 and 2024.

Among urban women the share increased from 15.5% to 18% — a 2.5% point rise — while among urban men it increased from 58.1% to 61.2%. Paid work includes self-employment, regular wage/salaried jobs, and casual labour.

Chart 2 shows the share of urban men and women (above six years of age) who provide unpaid services for their own use in India in 2019 and 2024.

Unpaid provision of services for own use includes household accounting and management, purchasing goods, preparing and/or serving meals, waste disposal and recycling, cleaning, decorating and maintaining one’s own dwelling and gardening.

The share of women doing such work increased from 79.3% to 81% in the period, with the share of men increased from 23% to 28.5%.