Time poverty and consumption poverty in India: a study through the lens of gender

This study aims to find the nature of the association between poverty of households and time poverty of male and female members in India, using measures of poverty such as head-count ratio and poverty gap ratio. It also helps to find other factors which impact time poverty. The empirical analysis has been using the Time Use Survey of India (2019). Regression methods such as bivariate probit model and fractional regression analysis have been used. A simple household model has been proposed to provide a theoretical explanation for the empirical results. Results show a positive association between time poverty and household poverty for women, while it is negative for males. So, females from poor households are more likely to suffer from time poverty than females from non-poor households. As the depth of economic poverty rises, females have a greater time poverty gap ratio. This suggests an unequal distribution in the burden of poverty between male and female members in poor households. The reason is due to higher time allocated by women to paid work to supplement household income, without an equal fall in household work time. Males from households with higher poverty gap suffer from less time poverty gap. Other factors such as social group, religion, household size and education significantly influence the time poverty of men and women. The study ends with recommendations such as daycare centres for working mothers and improving access of women to higher wage jobs through skill upgradation which will help to reduce the problem of time poverty amongst them.