Valuation of unpaid household work of rural women: A case study of Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh

Women considerably contribute to a large part of an economy through their productive work but their works are not recognized due to the inadequate definition of ‘economic activity, used in the national income accounting. A major section of the invisible work performed by rural women remains unidentified, undefined, and unpaid. Since the definition of economics is bounded by the market framework, much of the non-market work performed by women remain invisible and has consequently caused the market devaluation of women’s work. Present primary data-based study on Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh studies the valuation of paid and unpaid household activities of rural women by Market replacement cost method. The study finds that the total average time spent on unpaid SNA and Extended SNA activities by non-working women is almost double the time spent by working women. The daily and monthly wages for unpaid household activities work for the non-working woman is about 28.34 per cent higher than a working woman under the market replacement generalist approach. In the study specialist approach is found to be better and more realistic than the general approach.