Based on the findings of a time-use survey conducted in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, this article attempts to interrogate how unequal perceptions of the working status of equally occupied women and men may serve to reproduce inequalities that seep back into existing gender relations, maintaining the unequal status quo. Drawing from an example of a remedial public works scheme, it further attempts to demonstrate how state institutions can play a role in altering unequal conditions of and access to work to reverse unequal perceptions of work, thereby providing a beginning for a more “just” labour regime.
