Unpaid Work Done By Women Around The Globe Is Equal To 43 Times Apple’s Annual Turnover: OXFAM
A recent study by Oxfam reveals that the unpaid work done by women around the globe is worth 43 times the annual turnover of Apple, world’s biggest company, which roughly amounts to $10 trillion per year.
Talking about India, the cost of the unpaid household work done by women, which includes looking after their children, preparing food 3-4 times a day, etc. is worth 3.1 percent the country’s GDP. [Well imagine the figures of our GDP, if women start getting paid for their work!!!].
The report also stated that women living in urban areas spend 312 minutes per day on unpaid work while women in rural areas spend 291 minutes per day which is 10 times the number of minutes men spend on unpaid care work. Men living in urban areas spend just 29 minutes a day and men in rural areas spend 32 minutes a day on unpaid work.
The report released before the beginning of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Swiss Ski Resort Town on behalf of the International Rights Group said that women and girls are most adversely affected by growing economic inequality in India, where women are less likely to indulge in paid work in comparison to men of the country. Talking about salaried women in India, they get lesser jobs compared to men, whereas there are only nine women in the country’s 119-member billionaire club.
The report also highlighted the prevalent and growing sexual harassment against women, be it at home or at workplace and lot of women being involved in Informal sector and not paid adequately. We do have various laws for women, like the laws of sexual harassment at workplace and law relating to sexual abuse, but implementation of these laws have always remain an obstacle, which we haven’t overcome yet.
Even in this growing age digitalization and modernisation, we still have women who are even denied the right to get basic education. Various economic, social and political factors are responsible for such kind of disparity in the country. On the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index of 2018, the Oxfam study also referred to India’s poor 108th ranking, saying it was 10 times less than in 2006 and far below the global average and behind its neighbours China and Bangladesh.
It’s definitely the time to right the wrong we have been living with. Probably then India will take a step further from being a developing country to a developed nation.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This article is written by Shreya Kohli, our intern.
