Well-being costs of unpaid care: Gendered evidence from a contextualized time-use survey in India

Using a contextualized primary time-use survey (TUS) data, we examine the gendered effects of unpaid care work on care providers’ well-being outcomes– labor supply, time allocation, life satisfaction, happiness, and health in India. A reduced form weighted composite score of health conditions and assistance need within household, and presence of care centers in the community is used as an instrument for caregiving. Using two-stage least squared instrumental variables estimation, we find greater adverse effects of caregiving on women compared to men. An additional hour of caregiving reduces women’s: i) probability of labor market participation by 20 percentage points (pp) and their employment hours by over one hour per day; ii) self-care and socializing time; and iii) probability of life satisfaction and happiness; with either no significant or smaller negative effects for men. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to implement a contextualized TUS, comprising rich data on households’ care needs, private and public care provisioning, households’ access to technology and consumer durables, gender norms, and women’s empowerment. Moreover, the first study in the context of India to provide gender-differentiated effects of unpaid care on well-being. The study draws policy implications focusing on interventions directed towards mitigating restrictive gender norms, access to durable goods and reducing the burden of domestic chores.