4 March 2025 : Indian Express Editorial Analysis
1. Mapping her work
(Source – Indian Express, Section – The Ideas Page – Page No. – 11)
| Topic: GS2 – Social Justice |
| Context |
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Analysis of the news:
Increase in Rural Women’s Employment
- A significant proportion of these women are engaged as helpers in home-based enterprises.
- This shift raises an essential question: where are these women finding the time to take on income-generating activities, and what domestic responsibilities are being adjusted to make room for work?
Women’s Time Spent on Domestic Work
- According to the 2019 Time Use Survey of India, rural women dedicate a large portion of their daily time to household chores, particularly cooking.
- A detailed 24-hour time use survey conducted in rural Indore reveals that women spend over 40 out of 60 weekly hours of domestic work on cooking and cleaning—an equivalent of four hours per day, akin to a part-time job.
- Additionally, around 75% of these women rely on firewood and cow dung for cooking, which not only lengthens cooking and cleaning time but also exposes them to serious health risks such as cardiovascular and lung diseases due to indoor smoke inhalation.
Impact of LPG Adoption on Women’s Productivity
- The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) aimed to alleviate these challenges by promoting the use of LPG for cooking.
- Data from rural Indore indicate that households with LPG access save approximately 30 minutes per meal preparation compared to those using solid fuels.
- Furthermore, women in LPG-equipped households spend significantly less time on fuel collection—about 70 minutes less per week on dung collection and 10 minutes less on firewood collection.
- However, the total daily time savings amount to only about 30 minutes, suggesting that while LPG adoption can enhance household productivity, the impact on overall time savings remains limited.
Reallocation of Saved Time
- Despite time savings from LPG usage, no significant increase in income-generating activities is observed among women in these households.
- Instead, the majority of saved time—approximately 20 minutes per day—is reallocated to leisure. There are multiple reasons for this outcome.
- First, fuel collection is an infrequent task, typically done once a week, so switching to LPG does not result in daily time savings.
- Second, the time saved per day is insufficient for taking up full-time employment outside the home.
Low Economic Incentives for Women’s Work
- The economic value of women’s saved time in rural India remains low due to the nature of available work.
- Most employment opportunities for rural women are in low-wage, unskilled manual labor.
- The estimated 30 minutes of daily time savings translate to only about 5% of the rural monthly household income, making it an insufficient economic motivator.
- Additionally, flexible work opportunities that could accommodate small time increments are scarce, and the female labor force participation rate remains low at around 15%, mainly in agricultural self-employment.
- As a result, many households do not prioritize using LPG regularly, despite having access to it.
Limited Adoption of LPG for Regular Use
- Although the PMUY program has successfully increased LPG connections, regular usage remains low in rural India.
- Many households practice mixed-fuel cooking, leading to minimal LPG cylinder refills.
- While a four-member household relying solely on LPG would require around 12 cylinders annually, the average annual usage remains at just three refills.
- This suggests that factors beyond affordability, such as male-dominated household decision-making and ingrained cooking habits, play a role in preventing a complete shift to cleaner fuels.
Conclusion
- The 2024 Time Use Survey reports a 1.5 percentage point increase in overall female employment and an additional 24 minutes spent on work-related activities compared to 2019.
- However, the reasons behind the dramatic 20 percentage point rise in self-employment among rural women between 2017-18 and 2023-24 remain unclear.
- It is uncertain whether this trend reflects genuine economic shifts or merely changes in PLFS survey methodology.
- More granular, updated data is needed to determine whether Indian women’s work participation has undergone a meaningful transformation or if it is primarily a statistical artifact.
| What is Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)? |
| The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with the objective of making clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment. Objectives:
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| Practice Question: Despite the increased availability of LPG through schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), the time saved by rural women in cooking and fuel collection has not significantly translated into higher labor force participation. Analyze the underlying reasons and suggest policy measures to enhance women’s economic empowerment in rural India. (250 Words /15 marks) |
