Indian Women Work 50 Days More Than Men: Report

A recent revelation by the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report suggests that women in India work 50 days more than their male counterparts. On an average, women work 50 minutes extra daily in relation to men around the world. If we do not focus on India, the average extra days that women world around the world, is 39 days. Women in Portugal and Estonia share the same number of extra working days with India and in the UK, the number is 12 days.

The presence of unpaid work is something that the women have to suffer from, and the report estimates that it will take 170 years to close the economic inequalities. The economic opportunity gap is larger than ever since year 2008.

Picture Credit: BBC

When it comes to unpaid work, taking care of the child, house chores, women work over a month extra than men. In fact, men do 34 per cent more paid work than women.

The report shows only six countries where men work more than women, but these are Nordic countries which have a parental leave plan that allows for both men and women to share the load.

BBC quoted Vesselina Ratcheva, a data analyst at WEF, saying "Shared parental leave can be good because it allows families to plan their lives, to fit having children in with their careers and to share responsibilities."

This suggests the unfair unpaid workload most women have to suffer all around the world. Economists suggest that investing in these unpaid workers can lead to economic growth of the country.

To understand this, the International Trade Union Confederation estimated that "if 2% of a country's GDP was invested in its care sector, employment would increase from 2.4% to 6.1%, depending on the country. This would equate to nearly 13 million new jobs in the United States, 3.5 million in Japan and 1.5 million in the United Kingdom”, quoted BBC.

Feature Image Courtesy: Livemint