Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

Impact of custom hiring services on paddy cultivation: A propensity score matching approach

Intensification without empowerment? Gendered time burdens in India’s livestock sector

This paper provides a nationally representative assessment of changes in women’s work in livestock rearing in rural India using unit-level data from the Time Use Surveys (TUS) 2019 and 2024. By situating the analysis within debates on the feminization of agriculture, the study examines shifts in participation and time allocation in livestock rearing among rural working-age individuals (15–59 years). While women’s participation in economic work increased modestly between 2019 and 2024, this expansion continues to coexist with a persistently high burden of unpaid domestic and caregiving services. Within agriculture, livestock emerges as a relatively more dynamic and gendered domain of work. Using the 2016 International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS), livestock activities are disaggregated into own use and market-oriented livestock activities. Descriptive evidence shows that women’s participation in livestock activities increased from 11 percent in 2019 to 15 percent in 2024, with a particularly notable rise in market-oriented livestock activities across several states and agroecological zones. Although crop husbandry continues to dominate agricultural employment, both incidence and intensity of participation of women in livestock rearing has visibly increased. Regression results indicate a positive and significant year effect for total livestock and livestock activities, but not for livestock own-use activities, suggesting that the observed increase is primarily associated with market-oriented engagement rather than subsistence expansion. Education exhibits a strong negative association with livestock time use, especially for women, indicating that livestock remains a fallback activity under constrained employment options. Gelbach decomposition further shows that changes in age composition and educational attainment account for a substantial share of the explained variation, while monthly per capita consumption expenditure has a stronger and more consistently significant association with women’s livestock time use than men’s. Overall, the findings point to incremental change within a persistently gendered structure of rural time allocation.

Changes in work participation across genders in rural India: Evidence from 2019 and 2024 time use surveys

This study examines gendered patterns of time use in rural India using nationally representative time use surveys from 2019 and 2024, capturing shifts in labor force participation amid significant socioeconomic changes, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis reveals a notable rise in rural women’s labor force participation—from 32 percent to 35.9 percent in agriculture—with a 38 percent increase in their paid agricultural work time. However, this progress coexists alongside entrenched gender disparities in unpaid domestic work, where women continue to spend nearly five hours daily, limiting their engagement in nonagricultural employment, which remains male-dominated and stagnant for women. Using multivariate regression and Gelbach decomposition, the study identifies gender, landholding, education, income, and caste as significant determinants of time allocation. Yet, much of the increase in women’s work time is driven by unobserved factors, likely linked to post-pandemic livelihood adjustments and structural constraints. The findings underscore that recent gains in women’s participation reflect genuine shifts rather than statistical artefacts but caution that without addressing time poverty, gender norms, and access to diversified livelihoods, these gains may not translate into sustainable empowerment. The paper calls for integrated policy measures, including gender-responsive agricultural support, public care infrastructure, skill development, and behavioral interventions to rebalance domestic responsibilities and facilitate women’s transition to higher productivity sectors.