The average woman between the ages of 15 and 29 spends 5.5 hours doing work at home. In the same house, the average boy spends 30 minutes working.
“The average woman between the ages of 15 and 29 spends 5.5 hours doing work at home. In the same house, the average boy spends 30 minutes working.”Rahul Gandhi, Chhatron Ki Goonj rally, Pune, 22 August 2026
Rated Misleading
The facts
Yes, women continue to perform substantially more unpaid domestic work than men. But Rahul Gandhi’s claim overstates the current time burden and ignores both the measurable decline in women’s unpaid domestic-work time
Government interventions are reducing the time women spend on basic household chores. Under PM Ujjwala Yojana, over 10 crore women have received LPG connections; government assessments estimate that switching from firewood to LPG can save women 2–3 hours a day otherwise spent collecting fuel and cooking with traditional fuels.
Jal Jeevan Mission has expanded rural tap-water coverage from just 16.7% of households in 2019 to over 81% by January 2026. WHO estimates universal household tap-water coverage can save 5.5 crore hours every day, primarily for women who otherwise bear the burden of fetching water.
At the same time, women’s participation in economic activity has risen sharply. PLFS data show the female Labour Force Participation Rate nearly doubled from 23.3% in 2017–18 to 41.7% in 2023–24, while the female Worker Population Ratio rose from 22% to 40.3%.