Self-Care by Indian Women: Materiality and Time Use

Self-care is an aspect of social reproduction—the basis of a sustainable economy. Social reproduction ensures the primary condition for capitalist accumulation—a healthy and dependable workforce—both, present and future. Typically, social reproduction involves the production (or reproduction) of the household. Producing the household requires care for the self. As women and other caregivers care for themselves, they are revitalised to offer care to those around them—both, in the home and the market economy. However, the market economy understands self-care in individualistic ways, imagining it as a way to brand wellness products. Poet and activist Audre Lorde (1997a) critiques the market economy’s understanding of self-care. Lorde presents a self-affirming idea of self-care—to take the time to understand how one’s body feels versus how it looks. In this paper, we inquire—do married, working Indian women undergo self-care? We analyse data from the Time Use Survey of 2019 and inquire how much time do married working Indian women spend on (i) personal care and the maintenance of their bodies, (ii) leisure and (iii) socialising and private prayer, which we define as self-care. Our study shows that married working Indian women spend 97 min a day on average less than their husbands on self-care. We estimate the effects of demographic variables and paid and unpaid work on time spent in self-care by men and women through a simultaneous equation model. Through this, we trace the relationship between classical Indian patriarchy and the materiality of self-care.