Addressing Time Poverty for Gender Equality in Punjab

Time poverty, the chronic shortage of discretionary time for rest, leisure, or self-care, has emerged as a critical but under-recognized dimension of rural development, especially in agricultural regions like Punjab, Pakistan. While agriculture sustains livelihoods for millions, it also reinforces deeply entrenched gender roles that skew time allocation within households. In rural Punjab, women often carry the dual burden of contributing to agricultural production and performing unpaid domestic labor, including cooking, cleaning, childcare, and water or fuel collection. These overlapping responsibilities leave little time for self-care, education, or income-generating activities.

Recent surveys by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2023) reveal that rural women in Punjab spend up to 10-12 hours daily on unpaid labor, compared to 3-4 hours by men. This time burden limits their ability to access health services, engage in nutritional planning, or participate in community decision-making. As a result, time poverty exacerbates food insecurity and poor dietary practices, especially among women and children.

Moreover, time-constrained women often resort to quick, energy-dense meals with low nutritional value, contributing to rising rates of anemia, stunting, and undernutrition in rural households. Children’s nutritional health is particularly compromised when caregivers lack the time or energy to prepare balanced meals or attend health clinics.

Addressing time poverty requires a multi-sectoral approach. Interventions should include expanding rural infrastructure (such as clean water access and fuel-efficient stoves), promoting labor-saving technologies in agriculture, and investing in childcare and social protection schemes. Additionally, shifting social norms through gender-sensitive policy frameworks and community awareness programs is essential to redistribute unpaid labor more equitably.

Tackling time poverty not only enhances gender equality but also strengthens household nutrition and well-being. Recognizing and valuing women’s time is a crucial step toward inclusive and sustainable rural development in Punjab.

Understanding Time Poverty and Gendered Labor

Time poverty refers to the scarcity of time available for personal well-being due to excessive work demands. In rural Punjab, women experience acute time poverty resulting from their dual responsibilities in farming and unpaid domestic labor. The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey (2022–23) reports that rural women spend an average of 6 to 8 hours daily on agricultural tasks, followed by another 4 to 5 hours on household chores, cooking, water collection, and childcare. This adds up to nearly 12 to 13 hours of work per day, leaving little to no time for rest, self-care, or participation in community or economic development activities (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2023).

In contrast, rural men primarily engage in income-generating agricultural work for 7 to 8 hours per day, with minimal involvement in unpaid domestic responsibilities ILO, (2023). This gendered division of labor reflects deep-rooted cultural norms that assign caregiving and household management exclusively to women, reinforcing systemic inequalities.

The implications of time poverty extend beyond individual exhaustion. Women’s limited time availability undermines their ability to access healthcare, maintain balanced nutrition, or pursue educational and entrepreneurial opportunities. It also restricts their participation in extension services, farmer training programs, or local governance, perpetuating both economic and social marginalization.

Furthermore, time constraints contribute to poor dietary practices within households, as women, despite being primary caregivers, lack the time to prepare diverse and nutritious meals. This can lead to increased malnutrition, especially among children and pregnant or lactating women, intensifying the intergenerational cycle of poor health.

Addressing time poverty in rural Punjab requires recognition of unpaid labor in policy frameworks and promotion of gender-equitable labor sharing. Without tackling this foundational issue, broader goals related to rural development, nutrition, and gender equity will remain difficult to achieve.

Time Poverty, Gender Roles, and Nutritional Well-being in Rural Punjab

In rural Punjab, the entrenched gender division of labor and resulting time poverty have significant implications for nutritional outcomes, particularly for women and children. Women, despite their vital contributions to agricultural productivity and household management, face an unequal time burden that severely limits their ability to maintain healthy dietary practices. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2023) highlights that women in Punjab report consistently lower Dietary Diversity Scores (DDS) than men, largely due to time constraints and unequal access to food resources.

Although women spend 3 to 4 hours each day on meal preparation, their own nutritional needs are frequently deprioritized in favor of those of other family members. This pattern of self-sacrifice is exacerbated by chronic stress and fatigue stemming from continuous work without adequate rest or leisure, as reported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB, 2023). Such conditions contribute to poor dietary habits, skipped meals, and long-term nutritional deficiencies.

Furthermore, households where domestic responsibilities are more equitably shared show marked improvements in maternal and child nutrition (UN Women, 2023), suggesting that redistributing household labor could directly benefit public health outcomes. In contrast, the Pakistan Economic Survey (2023) shows that women engaged in both agricultural and domestic tasks average up to 14 hours of labor daily, leaving them with less than an hour of leisure, time essential for self-care and proper meal planning.

These findings are reinforced by data from the National Nutrition Survey (2023), which shows that 38% of rural women in Punjab are underweight, with high levels of micronutrient deficiencies. The World Bank (2023) further notes that increased leisure time for women correlates positively with better family nutrition, emphasizing the importance of reducing time poverty.

Policy Implications for Reducing Gendered Time Poverty and Improving Nutrition

Tackling gendered time poverty in rural Punjab requires a comprehensive policy approach that targets the root causes of unequal labor distribution and supports women’s access to time, resources, and opportunities. Labor reallocation is a critical first step. Policies that promote men’s involvement in unpaid domestic work through mass awareness campaigns, school-based gender sensitization, and community dialogues can help shift cultural norms and reduce women’s disproportionate workload. When men share household and caregiving duties, women gain time for rest, income-generating activities, and self-care, all of which contribute to improved family well-being.

Another priority is expanding rural childcare services. Establishing accessible, affordable daycare centers near farms and villages can significantly ease women’s caregiving responsibilities. By ensuring safe environments for children, these facilities allow women to engage more productively in agriculture and other sectors without compromising care work.

Adopting time-saving technologies can also help alleviate time poverty. Distributing efficient cookstoves, water-saving devices, and mechanized farming equipment to rural women can drastically reduce the hours spent on repetitive tasks like cooking, water collection, and manual farming.

Government-led nutritional education campaigns are equally important. These should focus on building knowledge around balanced diets, meal planning, and nutrient-rich local foods. When paired with time-saving strategies, such education can improve dietary outcomes for entire households.

Finally, gender-sensitive agricultural policies are essential. Providing women with equal access to training, farm inputs, and extension services ensures they can adopt modern, efficient farming practices and participate fully in decision-making. Such inclusion improves not only productivity but also economic autonomy and time use. A combination of these targeted interventions can reduce time poverty, advance gender equality, and enhance nutrition in rural communities, laying the foundation for healthier, more resilient households across Punjab.

Conclusion

Time poverty is a critical but under-addressed barrier to achieving gender equality, nutritional well-being, and rural development in Punjab. As this article has shown, the burden of excessive, gendered labor, spanning agricultural work and unpaid domestic responsibilities, disproportionately falls on rural women. This imbalance limits their time for rest, health care, self-care, and nutritious meal planning, contributing directly to undernutrition and poor health outcomes for women and children alike. Despite playing a central role in food production and caregiving, women often eat last and least, while fatigue and stress further erode their well-being.

The consequences of this time poverty are far-reaching: lower dietary diversity scores among women, higher rates of maternal malnutrition, and restricted opportunities for education, participation in agricultural training, or economic advancement. Evidence clearly shows that equitable sharing of household labor, improved access to time-saving technologies, affordable childcare, and nutrition education are not only necessary but effective measures for improving both gender equity and public health outcomes.

Tackling time poverty must therefore be a policy priority. It is not simply a matter of efficiency; it is a matter of justice and sustainability. Recognizing women’s unpaid labor and redistributing it fairly is essential to building healthier households, empowered communities, and an inclusive rural economy in Punjab.

References: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics; ILO; FAO; WFP; ADB; UN Women; World Bank; NNS

Please note that the views expressed in this article are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of any organization.

The writers are affiliated with the Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. For correspondence, please contact 2013ag3509@uaf.edu.pk

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