According to a Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) survey, most Ugandans spend less time on productive work but a lot of it on unproductive work.
Danstan Aguta of UBOS, who led the survey, whose main objective was to increase the visibility of unpaid care work through better statistics on their contribution to the economy said they profiled the distribution of paid/unpaid work as a means to infer policy and programme implications from the perspective of gender equity.
He said the other objectives of the survey were to collect and analyze the time use pattern of the individuals in order to help draw inferences for employment and welfare programmes.
It also collected and analyzed the comprehensive information about the time spent by people on market and non-market economic activities.
The survey found that during weekdays, Ugandans spend about 13 hours on unproductive work. The hours rise on weekends to 15.
“Men spend about 6 hours in productive work during weekdays while women spend about 4 hours. On weekends, men spend 5 hours on productive work while the women’s time decreases to 3 hours,” said Aguta.
However, the women top in the unpaid care work category, spending about 6 hours on average compared to the 4 hours spent by men.
The Eastern region top the category of males who spend long hours in unproductive work. The UBOS survey found that males from other regions spend lesser time/hours on unproductive work.
By residence, the UBOS survey found that rural men spend a lot of their time on unproductive work than their fellows in urban centres or than women in both urban and rural areas.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics survey also found that people who have an education above secondary spend longer hours on unpaid care work than any level of education.
The UBOS survey concluded that females spend more time on unpaid work compared to males whereas males spend more time on Paid activities noting that Gender stereotypes are still present in our society.
BY PAUL TENTENA
