Tasks and Opportunities Within Indian Families

1. Tasks and Opportunities Within Indian Families Sripad Motiram Lars Osberg Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, Halifax Canadian Economics Association June 6, 2008A

2. Gender Bias, Tasks & Opportunities Within Indian Families? • Tasks – Do Indian men ‘work’ more or less than Indian women? • Opportunities – Gender bias in Human Capital investment in India? • School attendance • Informal parental instruction • Results: • Urban/Rural differ in work time • No evidence of gender bias in informal instruction

3. Time Use Data – An Important New Tool for Development Analysis • Poor people do not have money but they do have time • Data on market income & spending cannot reveal behaviour of children or many women or very poor people • Hence often ignored in empirical analysis • But everything we do takes time • Everyone has 24 hours of time, every day • Excluded groups can be examined with time use data

4. Change in the Market / Non-Market Boundary – central to “Development” • Crucial aspects of the development process largely occur outside the market economy – but do use time • All societies pass skill sets to children • Informal Parental Instruction – the base case • Formalization & Specialization (i.e. Schools) characteristic of development • This paper: Human Capital investment decisions & Gender Bias within households • Also: • Social Capital formation & Basic Goods (Drinking Water – Motiram and Osberg, 2007) • Environmental Degradation & Deforestation

5. The Time Use Diary Methodology • Standard Labour Force Survey • Retrospective & summative questions asked: • “How many hours do you normally work?” • Rounding, Anchoring, Inconsistency Problems • Large samples possible, low response burden • Time Diary • Interviewer walks respondent through previous random day – in 10-15 minute intervals • Narrative spur to recall • Multiple activities + social context observable • Imposes consistency & completeness • Better measures of working hours? • Labour Intensive - implies small samples (?) • Episodic activities probabilistically observed • E.g. Expectation (dining out | characteristics)

6. Indian Time Use Survey,1998-99 • Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, Tamil Nadu • 233 million (geographically representative) • Stratified Random Sampling (NSS). • 1066 rural and 488 urban strata in 52 districts • 18,592 Households. (77,593 persons). • 12,751 rural, 5,841 urban Households • Interview Method. • Male + female interviewer • visit village for 9 days to assess • Time Use Diary of day’s activities for all persons aged 6+ • Normal / Abnormal / Weekly variant – normal used

7. Indian Time Use Survey,1998-99

8. Gender and Work in India • Definition of ‘work’ is contested • Is ‘caring’ = ‘work’ ? • Housework • Clearly female task – rural & urban • Primary + Secondary + Trade = Commodity Production • Rural – female field work time ≈ 2/3 male • Urban • Average Male work hours ≈ 8.5 • Average Female work hours ≈ 1.5

9. Housework in India – Highly Gendered Task at All Ages

10. Housework + Commodity Production Young rural women work most. Urban women often not in labour force

11. Schooling and Informal Instruction - Gender Bias in Human Capital Formation? • Do Indian families prefer to invest in human capital of boys? • School enrolment & attendance • Lower & more biased to boys in rural areas • Urban – roughly equal boys/girls • HUGE impact of parental illiteracy • Informal instruction by parents • The ‘base case’ for useful productive skills • Historically important for literacy • Scandinavia in 1600s • ITUS • match parent & child reports of informal instruction • simultaneous give/receive – Who gives? Who gets?

12. School Attendance of Boys & Girls • Urban – roughly similar attendance rates • Rural – systematic female disadvantage • Lagged impact of parental illiteracy?

13. Parental Literacy – HUGE Impact on School Attendance

14. Gender Favouritism &/or Altruism? Parental Informal Instruction in India • Are boys more likely to get help with their homework and other types of parental instruction (gender favouritism), conditional on some instruction being given (altruism) ?

15. Probability of Informal Instruction by Household Adults • Probit Model • Gender mix of kids • Not significant • Parental Illiteracy • Strongly negative • urban & rural • Income • Positive – urban • Home owner • Positive • Urban & rural • Caste • Negative – rural • Water-carrying time • Not significant

16. Probability of Receiving Informal Instruction (for a child) • Probit Model • Prob (given child in boy/girl family received informal instruction) • Gender & age • Not significant • Rural or urban • Parental Illiteracy • Negative always • No evidence for sample selection bias Girls – less learning time than boys in rural areas, but more in urban areas- no less likely to receive parental instruction

17. Conclusions:(How Urbanization benefits Women - 1) • Gender Bias in Tasks • Housework – clearly gendered labour in India • Total (housework + commodity production) • Younger rural women – housework + field work = a longer workday • Urban women – less work outside home • Available time for home instruction of children

18. Conclusions:(How Urbanization benefits Women - 2) • Gender Bias in Opportunities • Parental Illiteracy – major negative for both school & informal instruction • No evidence of gender bias in informal instruction • Rural • Less school & less parental instruction • Girls disadvantaged in school attendance • Urban • More school • More parental instruction • More often done by women • Amount & Gender Equity of HK Investment • An under-appreciated benefit of urbanization in India?