QUANTIFYING THE VALUE OF UNPAID ACTIVITIES OF WOMEN A CASE STUDY

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1 QUANTIFYING THE VALUE OF UNPAID ACTIVITIES OF WOMEN A CASE STUDY 1. Introduction R.N. PANDEY Central Statistical Organisation Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation New Delhi Time use studies show that people use significant amounts of time in producing goods and services in households. Estimates of the value of household work as a proportion of GDP has varied between 35-55%. However, this significant area of economic activity is not covered by official statistics. Calculations of the value of household production have been made in several countries during decades, but the problem is that there are no generally accepted guidelines how to construct the satellite accounts for household production or what is the best operational method to value household production. In India, a pilot Time Use Survey was conducted in six selected states during July 1998 to June Keeping in view the ultimate objective of the survey, the wage data for different categories of persons were also collected for the districts where the rural sample was located to enable the valuation of unpaid activities of the individuals. Unfortunately the requisite data from the Time Use Survey are not yet ready to attempt the valuation exercise. However, a similar survey was sponsored by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh. In this paper an attempt has been made to use the data from this survey to quantify the unpaid activities of the women. 2. National Accounts and Satellite Accounts The aim of the household satellite is to provide an overall picture of the productive activities undertaken by households and to give an estimate of the value of household production. Small part of this production is covered by SNA, the core national accounts, but most of it is not. Satellite accounts are compatible with the logic of national accounting, yet completely separate from national accounts. The concept of production in the household satellite is broader than in SNA. It applies the so-called general production boundary, which covers all production of goods and services both in the market and in households. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily of the organisation to which he belongs. 1

2 3. Satellite Account of Household Production SNA93 recognizes that household production is a part of economic activity in a general sense. Households produce goods and services quite similar as produced in market economy. SNA93 includes also goods produced in households, presumed that the production is significant for the whole country. SNA presents the sequence of accounts for households. The satellite account of household production consists of the following elements:- Labour input: time spent on housework valued at a suitable wage + consumption of fixed capital [household durable, means of transport, facilities etc.] + taxes less subsidies on production = gross value added of household production + intermediate consumption used in production [raw materials, energy etc.] = output [total value of household production] Housework is the main input to household production. It refers to the unpaid work household members expend in producing goods and services for own use or volunteering. Time used on housework can be estimated fairly well by time use surveys. The way the time will be valued has a crucial effect on the value of the whole household production. For valuation of the time, the wage data of the appropriate category of worker may be used. For household production some fixed capital and household durable are used, e.g. kitchen and oven for cooking, car for shopping etc. Therefore, capital input, consumption of fixed capital, should be added. Taxes on production linked to housing, car etc. should be added as well and subsidies on production should be subtracted. Gross value added is the s.c. GDP component that can be compared with the gross domestic product figures. But to calculate the total value of household production turnover or output, intermediate consumption used in production should be added. This means raw materials etc. consumed during the production process. These data are collected in household budget survey. 2

3 4. Brief Details of Survey Conducted in Meerut Survey covered only females aged 6 years and above in rural areas of Meerut District. Sampling design adopted was a two stage stratified sampling. The census villages being first stage and household s the second stage unit. From all the 18 blocks, 3 villages were selected after strata. Thus in all 1620 households were surveyed. The survey was conducted during December, 1998 to May, To facilitate the quantification of unpaid activities of women, wages of workers involved in various activities covered in Time Use Survey were also collected in the survey. Average contribution per Rural Woman during the year [Rs.] [1] Paid = Rs. 792 Av. Wage rate for paid part*time spent [in minutes] spent on paid part = *52 60*8 [2] Unpaid = Rs Av. Wage rate for unpaid part*time spent [in minutes] spent on unpaid part = *52 60*8 [3] Total contribution of rural women [6 years and above ] = Per women annual contribution * Rural pop n 6 years and above [i] [ii] Paid = Rs. 792 * = Rs. 748,299,024 [Rural population {6 years and above } = ] Unpaid = Rs * = Rs.7,905,325,674 Total = [i] + [ii] = Rs. 8,653,624,698 [4] Total Income [per commodity producing sector per year in Meerut district] = Rs * 3,447,912 = 25,859,340,000 [Total population for the district = 3,477,912 Per capita income = 7555] [5] Increase in the income {3[[ii]} as Percentage of (4)} = 30.57% [6] Commodity producing sector is only about 38% of total gross domestic products. [7] Share of unpaid work of rural women in SNA activity in total Gross Domestic Product of the district *38 = = 11.62% 100 3

4 5. Results Table 1 presents the average time spent per day and per week by the rural women in SNA and Non SNA activities. It is striking to note that women spent only ¼ hours in paid SNA activities as against 3 ½ hours in unpaid activities. The pattern is almost same for normal and weekly variant days. Thus most of the time spent by women in SNA was not paid for. Table 2 gives the average time spent and wage paid for each of the SNA activities. The details of SNA activities from 111 to 329 are given Annexure to facilitate paper understanding of the data. The data given in this table has been used to work out the value of unpaid work of the women in SNA activities and its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Meerut District. The methodology used in this exercise are described below. 6. Conclusion The analysis attempted in this paper reveal that GDP will increase by about 11 % if we take in to account the unpaid work of the women in SNA activities. If we include activities in the extended SNA, the women s contribution will be much more. However, the methodology used here would require further refinement as only one factor of household production namely value of time spent on housework has been taken into consideration. Some approximation has to be attempted for other factors also mention in section 3 of this paper. 4

5 TABLE 1 : AVERAGE TIME SPENT (IN MINUTES) PER DAY FOR SNA ACTIVITY (PAID & UNPAID) AND NON SNA ACTIVITY Activity Normal Day Variant Day Total Week SNA - Paid Unpaid Non SNA Total

6 Table 2 : Wage Rate & Time Spent Time Spent (Minutes) Normal Day Time Spent (Minutes) Weekly variant Activity Paid Unpaid Wage Paid Unpaid Code Rate

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8 Average Time Spent (Min) Σ Time spent * ACTIVITY CLASSIFICATION ANNEX I Primary Production Activities 11 Crop farming, kitchen gardening, etc Ploughing, preparing land, cleaning of land 112. Sewing, planting, transplanting 113. Application of manure, fertilizer, pesticides and watering, preparing organic manure. Harvesting, threshing, picking, winnowing 114. Weeding 115. Supervision of work Kitchen gardening backyard cultivation 117. Stocking, transporting to home, guarding or protection of crops Sale and purchase related activities 119. Travel to the work. 12. Animal husbandry 121. Grazing animals outside 122. Tending animals cleaning, washing shed, feeding, watering, preparation of feed. 8

9 123. Caring for animals : breeding, shearing, medical treatment, grooming, shoeing, Al etc Milking and processing of milk Collecting, storing of poultry products Making dung cakes 126. Poultry rearing feeding, cleaning Other related activities Sale and purchase related activities 129. Travel to the work. 13. Fishing, Forestry, Horticulture, Gardening 131. Nursery - seedlings 132. Planting, tending, processing of trees Collecting, storing & stocking of fruits etc Wood cutting, chopping & stocking firewood 135. Fish farming, cleaning sea-bed, feeding fish, catching fish, gathering other aquatic life 136. Care of house plants, indoor and outdoor garden work Flower gardening landscaping, maintenance, cutting, collecting, storing 138. Sale and purchase related activities Travelling to the work. 14. Collection of fruit, water, plants etc., storing and hunting Fetching of water 141. Collection of fruits, vegetables, berries, mushrooms etc. edible goods 142. Collection of minor forest produce, leaves, bamboo, etc Collection of fuel/fuel wood/twigs Collection of raw material for crafts Collection of building materials 146. Collection of fodder 147. Sale and purchase related activities 148. Collection of other items 149. Travel to work. 15 Processing & Storage 152. Milling, husking, pounding 9

10 153. Parboiling 154. Sorting, Grading 155. Grinding, crushing 156. Any other related activity 157. Sales and purchase related activities 159. Travel for the work 16. Mining, quarrying, digging, cutting, etc Mining/extraction of salt, 162. Mining/digging/quarrying of stone, slabs, breaking of stones for construction of building road, bridges etc Digging out clay, gravel and sand 164. Digging out minerals major and minor 165. Transporting in vehicles 166. Storing, stocking 167. Any other related activity 168. Sale and purchase related activity 169. Travel for the work II. Secondary Activities 21 Construction Activities 211. Building & construction of dwelling (laying bricks, plastering, thatching, bamboo work, roofing) and maintenance and repairing of dwelling Construction and repair of animal shed, shelter for poultry etc Construction of wall, storage facility, fencing etc. for farms, irrigation work Construction of public works/common infrastructure roads, buildings, bridges, etc Any other activity related Sales and purchase related activity 219. Travel to the work. 22. Manufacturing Activities 221. Food processing and cooking for sale making pickles, spices and other products; canning fruits, jams & jellies; baking; beverage preparation, selling readymade food etc. 10

11 222. Butchering, curing, processing, drying storing etc. of meat, fish etc Manufacturing of textiles spinning, weaving, processing of textiles; knitting, sewing, garment making of cotton, wool and other material Making handicrafts, pottery, printing and other crafts made primarily with hands. (wood based leather based crafts, embroidery work etc.) 225. Fitting, installing, tool setting, tool and machinery moulding, welding, tool making, 226. Assembling machines, equipment and other products, 227. Production related work in large and small factories in different industries as production workers, maintenance workers paid trainees and apprentices, sales, administration and management activities Sale and purchase related activity 229. Travel for the work. III Trade, Business and Services 31 Trade and Business 311. Buying and selling goods such as capital goods, intermediate goods, consumer durables, consumer goods in the organised and formal sectors Petty trading, street and door to door vending, hawking, shoe cleaning etc Transporting goods in trucks, tempos and motor vehicles Transporting in hand carts, animal carts, cycle rickshaws etc. or manually 315. Transport of passenger by motorized and non-motorised transports 317. Any other activity Travel to work. 32 Services 321. Service in Government and semi government organisations (salaried) 322. Service in private organisations (salaried) 323. Petty service : domestic servants, sweepers, washers, pujari, barber, cobbler, mali massaging, prostitution, (wages) watching and 11

12 guarding 324. Professional services : medical and educational services (private tution, non formal teaching etc.), financial services and management and technical consultancy services 325. Professional services : computer services, Xerox/photocopying services, beauty parlours, hair cutting saloons etc Technical services: plumbing, electrical and electronic repair and maintenance and other related services 327. Others 329. Travel to work. 12