OT - Amusing -- Indian Men Gossip, Quarrel as Women Do Housework, Study Shows
By Anindya Mukherjee
New Delhi, Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Indian men gossip and quarrel more than women and spend longer washing, grooming, exercising and relaxing, a government study conducted to gauge productivity shows.
The first study of its kind in India showed that men on average spend 65 minutes a day ``talking, gossiping and quarreling'' -- five minutes more than women. They spend less than five minutes in the kitchen each day, compared with 2.1 hours for women and 3.7 hours a week on household chores against 34.6 hours for women. They spend 8 hours more a week than women socializing, watching TV and grooming themselves.
The study was aimed at evaluating ``the economic contribution of women ... and to study gender discrimination in household activities,'' K.V. Irniraya, secretary at the ministry of statistics and program implementation, said in his foreword to the report. A subsequent report will attempt to assign a rupee value to the work of Indian men and women, the secretary said.
The findings could help rework the way economic growth is evaluated in the country. It also offers some insights for consumer products companies such as Hindustan Lever Ltd., the Indian unit of Unilever Plc, which sells products from soap to tea and ice cream to as many as 500 million Indians -- half the country's population.
``With women spending so much time on household chores, they're bound to shop more for convenience products, like the readymade `chapatis' (Indian bread) we intend to launch,'' said Debasis Ray, spokesman for Hindustan Lever, India's biggest consumer goods company.
The study was conducted by asking 18,000 people in six states to record what they did in a day and classifying the responses into 154 categories.
Productive States
The study showed that in better-off states, such as western Gujarat state and Tamil Nadu in the south, men spend more time making money. In Gujarat, men spend eight more hours a week on paid-for economic activities than the national average.
When they are engaged in pure economic activities at the farm, field, quarry, factory or shop, Indian women don't get paid for 51 percent of their time, compared with 33 percent for men.
``This is just the kind of data we've been waiting for,'' said women's activist Brinda Karat. ``We're going to press harder with our demand for reflecting women's true contribution to the economy.''
That might be difficult, even after the survey.
``A farm laborer who gets paid no cash, but part of the crop, shows up in national accounts,'' said D.H. Pai Panandikar, director-general at RPG Foundation, a New Delhi-based think-tank. ``But how does one fix a wife's remuneration for cooking a meal?''
The findings throw up other gender differences. On average, women spend an average 27 minutes a day caring for children, while men spend just three minutes.
Washing clothes and doing the dishes are still women's jobs, Men contribute just 2.4 minutes a day to these chores, compared with 53 minutes for the average woman.
Add to this the 2.8 hours they spend cooking and cleaning the house everyday and it's clear why men can afford to spend more time exercising, grooming, rest and relaxation. According to the study, newly married men spend six more hours a week on ``self maintenance,'' compared with their wives.
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