MORE people living in rural areas spent their time in learning activities in 2024 than those in urban areas, according to a survey by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The MoSPI defined learning activity as time spent on formal education which involves school/university attendance, extra-curricular activities, homework among other things. It also includes travelling time-related to learning.

 

The second edition of the Time Use Survey (TUS), conductedbetweenJanuary-Decemberof 2024, sho w e d tha t femal e s hav e closed the gap with men in spending time on learning activities in the last five years. Women continued to spend 84minutes“learning”,whilethe timespent by men declined to 94 minutes from 102 minutes in the last five years. Notably, the time spent on “learning activity” declined for both the urban and rural areas in 2024 as compared to what it was in 2019.

 

While inurbanareaspeople spent 87 minutes a day on learning in 2024, they spent 95 minutes in2019. Similarly, people spent 90 minutes inruralareasin2024,compared to 92 minutes in 2019, the report said. The first country-wide TUS survey was conducted by MoSPI during January and December, 2019. “India is among the few countries, including Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, USA and China that conduct the national TUS to analyse how people allocate their time to various daily activities,” the Ministry said in a statement.