The ongoing debate about whether prolonged working hours lead to more productivity is not limited to corporates. There are certain Indian states that promote the 70-hour work week while others put productivity foremost.
According to a report by the Times of India, citing PM’s Economic Advisory Council Survey, people from Gujarat work the highest, devoting 70 hours a week in the country. As many as 7.2 percent of the Gujaratis work more than 70 hours a week, followed by Punjab (7.1 percent), Maharashtra (6.6 percent), West Bengal (6.2 percent), and Kerala (6.1 percent), respectively.
In contrast, people from Bihar were spotted last on the list with people working extreme hours, almost less than seven times than Gujarat. Assam (1.6 percent), Jharkhand (2.1 percent), Madhya Pradesh (2.7 percent), and Odisha (2.8 percent), were among the states that do not believe in 70-hour work week.
Notably, in terms of average daily working hours, Delhi ranked number 1 with 8.3 hours per day, followed by Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, respectively.
While Goans were the least at 5.5 hours a day. Most of the northeastern states (Assam, Meghalaya, and Nagaland) also reported less than 6 hours of work per day, the English Daily added.
‘Rural vs urban working hours’
The findings of the report also revealed that people from urban areas work for longer hours compared to rural regions. The average working day in cities stood at 7.8 hours versus 6.5 hours in villages.
The hardest working urban population reside in Rajasthan (working 8.6 hours a day), Uttarakhand, and Gujarat (working 8.3 hours a day), respectively.
States where urban people work for shorter spans in Meghalaya (6.3 hours per day), Manipur (6.1 hours per day), and Goa (5.9 hours per day).
In the rural region, Uttarakhand topped the list with the hardest working people (7.7 hours a day). The other in the list included Punjab (7.3 hours), and Jharkhand (7.2 hours). On the contrary, Assam )5.8 hours), Nagaland (5.7 hours) and Goa (4.8 hours) saw the least working hours in the rural region.
‘Work vs earnings’
The report noted that prolonged working hours do not always drive higher productivity. For instance, in Goa, despite people working fewer hours, the state had higher economic ., output. The other states in this category included Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Whereas, states where both work and pay were higher included Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Punjab, Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Puducherry respectively.
‘Government vs private workspaces’
As per the TOI report, government employees worked an hour less per day than private sector workers in general.
In some exceptional cases, Telangana and Rajasthan government employees worked two hours more than private companies employees.