Measurement Issues in Unpaid Work: What is Revealed from Primary Data in Bihar

The labour force participation rate (LFPR) of rural women in India is registered at 39.2%. Among states, the rate is lowest in Bihar (11.3%) based on usual principal and subsidiary status according to the 2020–21 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The motivation for this paper is the abysmally low worker population ratio (WPR) of rural women in Bihar. The study aims to explore the nature of women’s unpaid work against the backdrop of the country's lowest WPR of rural women among all states. Economic activities (from the perspective of the National Sample Survey Office [NSSO]) carried out by women within their household periphery without venturing outside become invisible. The study investigates the nature of work undertaken by women of upper and middle castes within the household to expose this invisibility. On the contrary, lower-caste women usually venture outside for work; therefore, it is visible and captured. For this, two villages in Bihar were selected in the South Bihar region. The economy of both villages is agricultural-based, and this area has no industry presence. The study adopted an intensive household survey of 100 women (50 each of upper and middle castes) aged 15–60 years. The study is based on the time use survey (TUS) method, wherein the intensity of work per day/week of women and how they spend their time on multiple jobs are recorded during a given time. The study reveals that women of the upper and middle castes spend 3 h at the household dairy to produce milk but only from within the household premises. The production not only meets their requirement for the home but is also for ‘selling’, thereby creating value for the household. Further, the production of milk as primary goods for home consumption comes under a specified activity (category I), but the NSSO does not count/capture their discontinuous, invisible and sporadic work in animal rearing in rural Bihar. The computation of the WPR for women is done based on their usual principal and subsidiary status, but their specified activity participation in rural areas is not considered. If this were counted, then the WPR of women in rural Bihar would be higher. Gender streamlining when making any decision about animal husbandry may encourage more women to come forward and further augment their participation in specified activities.