Women’s Paid and Unpaid Labour

Women’s labour is one of the clearest cases in which economic reality exceeds the boundaries of ordinary employment statistics. A woman may transplant paddy, tend cattle, sort makhana, assist a family loom, cook for a work gang, collect water and fuel, care for children and an elderly parent, keep household accounts and participate in a self-help group—all within the same week. Some of those activities generate wages or sales. Some produce goods for household use. Some support a family enterprise without an individual payment. Others reproduce the labour force itself by feeding, cleaning, nursing and caring. A history that counts only the first category systematically understates women’s contribution. This chapter therefore treats paid and unpaid work as connected parts of one labour system. It does not repeat Chapter 91’s analysis of the household as an economic institution, nor Chapter 93’s forthcoming analysis of marriage, dowry, inheritance and family structure. Its narrower question is how women’s work has been organised, measured, rewarded and rendered visible across Mithila, Vajji and Anga, with comparison to Nepal-side Madhesh. The argument is not that all unpaid work is oppression or that all paid work produces autonomy. Rather, remuneration, time control, productivity, social protection, asset ownership and bargaining power must be examined together. 92.1 “Work” and “employment” are not the same historical category Labour statistics require boundaries: who is counted as employed, what reference period is used, whether production is for the market or for own use, and whether assistance to a family enterprise qualifies as economic activity. Women’s activities often sit exactly at these boundaries. A man hired to thresh grain for cash is easily classified as a worker; a woman threshing the household’s own grain, feeding labourers and storing seed may appear partly as a producer and partly as a non-worker depending on the survey concept. The first task of women’s labour history is therefore conceptual: classification is evidence, but it is not the economy itself. 92.2 Colonial and early postcolonial enumeration repeatedly struggled with women’s subsidiary work Censuses and occupational surveys attempted to distinguish principal occupations, dependants, earners and workers, but household-based production made female activity difficult to fit into a single occupation. Enumerators could record a cultivator’s wife as economically inactive even when she weeded fields, processed grain and tended livestock. Later censuses improved worker definitions and distinguished main and marginal workers, yet seasonal and subsidiary activities remained sensitive to questioning and social expectations about what counted as “real work.” Long-run comparisons must therefore read changes in classification alongside changes in actual employment. 92.3 Agrarian labour made women indispensable while keeping tasks sharply gendered Across the rice-growing plains, women have participated heavily in transplanting, weeding, harvesting support, gleaning, threshing, winnowing, drying and storing grain, while ploughing and some machinery- intensive tasks were more often male-coded. The exact division varied by caste, landholding, technology and locality. Landless women were more likely to sell agricultural labour; women in cultivating households could work intensively on family fields without a separate wage. Mechanisation could remove some drudgery while 929929 GAJENDRA THAKUR also eliminating tasks through which poorer women earned cash. Agrarian “modernisation” therefore changed both workload and bargaining position. 92.4 Caste and class shaped whether women’s work was performed for wages, family production or status The same task can carry different social meanings depending on who performs it and under what relation. Dalit and land-poor women have historically had greater exposure to agricultural wage labour, construction and other physically demanding paid work because household survival required cash earnings. In some landholding or status-conscious households, norms of seclusion could restrict women’s market work while leaving extensive domestic, livestock and post-harvest labour untouched. Muslim, Hindu and other households also varied internally by class, biradari, education and locality. Female labour-force participation is therefore never a simple proxy for gender equality. 92.5 Post-harvest processing connected field production to the domestic economy Cleaning, drying, husking, grinding, sorting, seed preservation, fodder preparation and food storage often occurred near or inside the dwelling. These activities transformed crops into consumable, saleable or reusable products and determined losses, quality and food security. Because they were spatially domestic and frequently unpaid, they were easily described as “housework” even when they added economic value. Commercial mills, mechanical threshers, packaged foods and market purchases have shifted portions of this labour outside the household, but the transition is uneven and can replace women’s labour with purchased services without necessarily reducing women’s responsibility for provisioning. Figure 364 — Statistical and policy thresholds in the visibility of women’s work 92.6 Livestock work shows why “farm” and “care” cannot be separated neatly Feeding cattle and goats, cutting fodder, cleaning sheds, collecting dung, milking, processing milk and caring for sick animals combine routine labour with asset management. In many households women perform much of the daily work even when men control sale proceeds or formal ownership. Dairy cooperatives and milk collection centres can convert household labour into regular cash flow, but the distribution of that income depends on who holds the account, travels to the collection point and makes expenditure decisions. Livestock is therefore both productive work and a household buffer economy. HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II 92.7 Makhana, fisheries and wetland economies contain hidden stages of women’s labour Specialised wetland economies are often narrated through the male tasks most visible in ponds, markets or wholesale trade. Yet women may sort, grade, clean, roast, package, preserve, vend or keep accounts for makhana and fish-related household enterprises. The intensity varies by community and production system, and claims should not be universalised. What matters historically is that value chains extend into domestic space. When processing technology, producer groups or branded marketing expand, tasks once performed as unpaid family assistance may become wage work, self-employment or organised enterprise—without automatically redistributing care responsibilities. 92.8 Bhagalpur silk and other home-based industries blur the line between workshop and household Weaving, reeling, winding, dye preparation, finishing, embroidery and piecework can be organised through household space and kin labour. A loom or sewing machine inside the dwelling collapses the spatial distinction between “workplace” and “home.” Women may contribute to production in short intervals around cooking and care, making hours difficult to recall and remuneration difficult to assign when payment is made to the household or male contractor. The same problem appears in tailoring, incense rolling, food processing, handicrafts and other dispersed production. Home-based work is productive precisely because it mobilises domestic time and space. 92.9 Urbanisation expanded women’s informal employment faster than formal labour protections Towns and peri-urban corridors created work in domestic service, vending, food preparation, tailoring, beauty services, retail assistance, private schooling, health support, small workshops and construction. These jobs range from autonomous self-employment to highly dependent casual labour. Domestic workers are especially difficult to regulate because the workplace is another household; vendors and home workers may lack contracts; construction labour can be seasonal and mediated by contractors. Urban employment can widen cash income and mobility while still leaving women responsible for unpaid work before and after the paid workday. 92.10 Brick kilns, construction and migrant labour reveal the household basis of supposedly individual wages Seasonal migration to brick kilns, construction sites and other labour destinations often involves couples or families rather than isolated workers. Advances may be paid to a household unit, piece rates may depend on combined family output, and children’s care and cooking must be organised at the worksite. Women’s contribution can therefore disappear behind a male wage receipt even when production depends on joint labour. Conversely, when men migrate alone, women at origin absorb farm management, childcare, eldercare, financial administration and crisis response. Migration redistributes labour geographically; it does not remove unpaid work. 931931 GAJENDRA THAKUR Figure 365 — The visibility spectrum of women’s paid and unpaid work 92.11 Unpaid family work is economic production even when no individual wage is recorded A contributing family worker may assist a farm, shop, loom, dairy activity or other household enterprise without receiving a separate salary. The absence of an individual payment does not mean the activity lacks economic value; it means the remuneration is pooled, deferred or embedded in household claims. This status can offer flexibility and family continuity, but it can also weaken an individual woman’s control over income, pension eligibility, credit history and proof of employment. Labour history must therefore distinguish “unpaid” family production from unpaid domestic and care services: both lack direct wages, but they occupy different production boundaries. 92.12 Time-use surveys make visible work that labour-force surveys are not designed to count as employment India’s Time Use Surveys of 2019 and 2024 record a 24-hour diary of employment, own-use production, unpaid domestic services, unpaid caregiving, learning, social participation, leisure and self-care. This does not replace the Periodic Labour Force Survey. The two instruments answer different questions. PLFS estimates labour-force status over specified reference periods using economic-activity definitions; TUS asks how time was actually spent on a reference day. Together they expose the architecture of a workday: market work can rise or fall while cooking, cleaning, water collection and care remain indispensable. 92.13 Bihar’s 2024 time-use profile shows a stark gender reversal between employment and unpaid domestic work For persons aged six and above in Bihar, the 2024 Time Use Survey reported participation in employment and related activities for 54.7 per cent of males but only 10.6 per cent of females on the reference day. The pattern reversed for unpaid domestic services: 25.8 per cent of males and 76.7 per cent of females participated. Unpaid caregiving involved 18.6 per cent of males and 37.0 per cent of females. Among participants, women also spent much longer on unpaid domestic services—334 minutes compared with 95 minutes for men—and longer on care, 151 minutes compared with 91. These are time-use measures, not annual employment rates. HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II 92.14 PLFS shows a larger female workforce than the one-day employment measure, but Bihar still trails the national female WPR The PLFS 2023–24 estimated Bihar’s worker-population ratio for persons aged fifteen and above in usual status at 73.1 per cent for men and 30.1 per cent for women. Female WPR was 31.7 per cent in rural Bihar and 15.1 per cent in urban Bihar, compared with an all-India female WPR of 40.3 per cent. These figures are not directly comparable with TUS reference-day participation because age groups, reference periods and concepts differ. Their value lies in combination: labour-force surveys describe employment attachment, while time-use data reveal the unpaid workload surrounding that employment. 92.15 A low employment rate can coexist with an extremely long workday The statistical paradox is only apparent. A woman classified outside the labour force may still spend hours cooking, cleaning, collecting water, caring for children or elderly relatives, managing household consumption and producing goods for own use. A woman who is employed may then add these tasks to wage work, creating a double or multiple burden. Conversely, a rise in female labour-force participation can reflect distress-driven work, low-paid self-employment or unpaid family production as well as expanding opportunity. No single rate can establish empowerment without information on earnings, hours, work conditions and control over resources. Figure 366 — Bihar Time Use Survey 2024: three work clocks by gender Table 92.1 — Two measurement systems and what they reveal about women’s work Indicator / source Men Women What the measure means TUS 2024 Bihar: employment 54.7% 10.6% Did employment-related activity during participation, age 6+ the 24-hour reference day TUS 2024 Bihar: unpaid 25.8% 76.7% Did unpaid domestic services for domestic participation, age 6+ household members during the reference day TUS 2024 Bihar: unpaid 18.6% 37.0% Did unpaid caregiving for household caregiving participation, age 6+ members during the reference day PLFS 2023–24 Bihar: WPR, 73.1% 30.1% Was employed in usual status (principal age 15+ + subsidiary) over the survey reference framework 933933 GAJENDRA THAKUR Indicator / source Men Women What the measure means PLFS 2023–24 Bihar: rural 74.2% 31.7% Rural worker-population ratio in usual WPR, age 15+ status PLFS 2023–24 Bihar: urban 63.1% 15.1% Urban worker-population ratio in usual WPR, age 15+ status Note: TUS and PLFS figures are not directly comparable because they use different age bases, reference periods and activity concepts. Their juxtaposition is analytical, not arithmetic. 92.16 MGNREGA created an unusually important local wage-work entitlement for rural women The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, enacted in 2005, guaranteed rural households access to specified public works and required that at least one-third of beneficiaries be women. Its significance for women extends beyond total person-days. Work is legally local, wage schedules do not prescribe a lower female rate, job cards can recognise adult household members, and bank or post-office payments create an individual financial interface. Yet access depends on work availability, worksite distance, childcare, task design, timely payment and control over the account. MGNREGA can therefore raise bargaining power without eliminating the unpaid workload that begins when the workday ends. 92.17 JEEViKA shifted some women from invisible household workers toward collective economic actors Beginning in Bihar in 2006 and later scaling statewide, JEEViKA organised women into self-help groups and federations connected to savings, bank credit, livelihood support and public programmes. The institution matters because economic participation is not only about an occupation; it is also about the ability to travel, handle money, negotiate with banks, attend meetings and act collectively. Women entered farm producer activities, livestock services, food enterprises, stitching, retail and other livelihood interventions. But the label “entrepreneur” should not conceal low returns, debt risk or continued unpaid care. Collective organisation changes the conditions of work; it does not automatically make every activity remunerative. 92.18 Frontline public services created a large zone between salaried employment and unpaid care Anganwadi workers and helpers, Accredited Social Health Activists, school meal cooks, community mobilisers, livestock sakhi workers and other local functionaries perform tasks that are essential to nutrition, health, schooling and rural programmes. Many are women and many are paid through honoraria, incentives or scheme-specific remuneration rather than regular civil-service salaries. Their work transfers portions of care and social reproduction from households into public systems, yet the employment relationship can remain insecure. The history of women’s paid work must therefore include these quasi-public occupations rather than treating “formal” and “informal” as the only two categories. 92.19 Education has expanded aspirations faster than the supply of accessible regular jobs Girls’ schooling and women’s higher education have expanded substantially since independence, creating expectations of teaching, health, clerical, professional and government employment. But the transition from education to work is constrained by job scarcity, examination cycles, commuting safety, marriage timing, care responsibilities and norms concerning acceptable workplaces. The especially low urban female WPR in Bihar in PLFS 2023–24 points to this transition problem: cities contain education and services, yet women’s HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II employment is not automatically absorbed. The issue is not simply “willingness to work” but the fit between jobs, mobility, wages and household obligations. 92.20 Bank accounts and digital payments can make earnings legible without guaranteeing control Direct benefit transfers, MGNREGA payments, self-help-group banking and widespread account ownership have increased the number of women who interact with formal finance. Digital payments can reduce cash leakage and create transaction records, but an account in a woman’s name is not identical to autonomous control of income. Phones may be shared, passwords known to relatives, and earnings immediately absorbed into household expenditure. Conversely, even pooled income can strengthen a woman’s position if she controls day-to-day budgeting. Financialisation therefore changes the infrastructure around work; its gender effects depend on social control and household bargaining. 92.21 Landlessness and caste hierarchy shape exposure to the harshest forms of paid labour Women from land-poor Scheduled Caste and other marginalised households have often had less room to withdraw from wage labour when jobs are arduous, poorly paid or socially stigmatised. Agricultural casual work, brick making, construction, cleaning and domestic service can therefore show relatively high female participation precisely where economic vulnerability is greatest. This is why a simple rise in participation cannot be read as social progress. The relevant questions are whether wages rise, whether discrimination and harassment fall, whether work is safer, and whether workers gain alternative livelihoods and social protection. 92.22 Muslim women’s labour is distorted when home-based and family work is mistaken for inactivity In Muslim households of Mithila and Anga, women’s economic roles vary widely by class, locality and biradari. Agriculture, livestock, tailoring, embroidery, weaving assistance, food work, petty trade, teaching, health services and self-help-group enterprises all occur, while mobility norms can push some income- generating activity into household space. Labour statistics that rely on self-identification can miss piecework or family assistance when respondents describe the primary role as “housewife.” The correct historical method is neither to presume seclusion nor to deny gendered mobility constraints, but to reconstruct specific labour processes. 92.23 Women’s labour changes across the life course rather than following one stable participation rate Adolescent girls may combine schooling with sibling care and household chores. Newly married women can face increased domestic responsibility and reduced mobility. Mothers of young children confront intense care demands, while older women may return to farm, livestock, vending or grandchild care after younger children grow. Widowhood can force rapid entry into paid work or make property access decisive. Cross- sectional statistics average these transitions into one female rate. A life-course history reveals that the same woman can move repeatedly among schooling, paid work, family production, care and job search. 92.24 Reproductive health and labour conditions are economically linked Pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, menstruation, anaemia, chronic illness and reproductive health affect the capacity to perform strenuous work and the costs of absence. In formal employment, maternity 935935 GAJENDRA THAKUR protections and leave can partially socialise these costs; in casual agriculture, home-based work or self- employment, income may stop when work stops. Public health, childcare and nutrition services therefore influence labour supply even when they are not labelled “employment policy.” Conversely, long hours of paid work combined with domestic work can reduce rest, nutrition and healthcare use. Reproductive labour is not an external demographic variable; it is part of the labour economy. 92.25 Male out-migration can increase women’s managerial work without converting responsibility into rights Large-scale migration from Bihar often leaves women managing cultivation, livestock, school decisions, health care, debt, remittance use and relationships with local officials. This feminisation of management may expand practical authority and public mobility. Yet land titles, tenancy contracts, irrigation membership or inheritance claims can remain male, limiting the institutional recognition of women who actually run farms and households. Remittance dependence can also make decision-making vulnerable to irregular transfers. Migration therefore creates a recurring gap between responsibility and formal control. Figure 367 — Regional mosaics of women’s paid and unpaid labour across Mithila, Vajji, Anga and Nepal-side Madhesh 92.26 Floods and climate stress expand unpaid work at the same time that they destroy paid workdays Floods, waterlogging, heat, crop loss and damaged roads alter women’s time before they appear in income statistics. Water sources become distant or contaminated; cooking and fuel arrangements change; children remain home; illness increases; livestock need rescue or fodder; relief must be collected; and damaged houses require cleaning. At the same time agricultural wage days, vending and home production may collapse. The result is a double shock: market income falls while unpaid labour rises. Climate adaptation that ignores care, water, sanitation and safe transport therefore underestimates the labour required for recovery. 92.27 Mechanisation is gendered because machines replace particular tasks rather than “labour” in general Combine harvesters, threshers, mills, pumps, fodder cutters, refrigerators, LPG, piped water and washing technologies alter different segments of women’s work. A thresher may remove paid post-harvest days for labourers while reducing drudgery for cultivator households. Piped water can save time without creating a HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II wage job. A sewing machine can raise home-based productivity but intensify piece-rate expectations. Technology should therefore be evaluated task by task: who previously performed the task, who owns the machine, whether time is actually freed, and what women can do with the saved time. 92.28 Equal-pay law does not eliminate gendered occupational segregation or informal bargaining India’s Equal Remuneration Act of 1976 established a legal principle against sex discrimination in remuneration for the same or similar work; wage-equality provisions are now carried within the Code on Wages framework. Yet most women in the study region work in settings where wage outcomes depend on casual hiring, piece rates, task segregation, contractors and local bargaining. Employers can classify men and women into different tasks rather than openly pay different rates for identical work. Effective equality therefore requires transparent task valuation, organisation, complaint mechanisms and alternative employment—not legal text alone. 92.29 Nepal-side Madhesh shows a comparable gap between women’s work and labour-market incorporation The Nepal Labour Force Survey 2017/18 estimated labour-force participation in Madhesh Province at 56.7 per cent for men and 25.9 per cent for women, with female unemployment also substantially higher than male unemployment. These figures belong to Nepal’s own statistical system and should not be merged with Bihar data, but they illuminate a shared cross-border structure: agriculture, household production, migration and care create large volumes of women’s work that do not all become stable employment. Cross- border marriage and male overseas migration can further redistribute labour toward women remaining in origin households. 92.30 A complete labour history must measure time, remuneration, control and social protection together Women’s economic contribution in Mithila, Vajji and Anga cannot be captured by asking only whether they are “working.” The relevant historical dimensions are the amount of time devoted to different activities; whether the activity is paid, unpaid family production, own-use production, domestic service or care; the level and regularity of earnings; control over income and productive assets; exposure to risk and harassment; and access to pensions, maternity protection, insurance, childcare and collective organisation. The central transition since independence is not a linear movement from unpaid housework to paid employment. It is a reorganisation of multiple forms of labour whose boundaries remain gendered. 937937