Before I begin, let me narrate an incident to set the context.
A few days ago, I visited a friend of mine -a married friend- who wasn’t even able to take out just ten minutes to come and chat with me as she was busy doing her household chores that she apparently “loved doing”. Interestingly, even after ‘donating’ herself, her health as well as her time to her home and her family, all that she gets in return are the gibes of doing "nothing" the entire day. This is very intriguing for a country like India where approximately 160 million women are considered to have ‘household work’ as their main occupation, according to the 2011 Census of India.
Are all these women who work hard day and night, cook for their families, clean their houses, nurture their children etc. then doing nothing?
The answer to this question is known to everyone. The housework done by a woman for her family has never been put under the category of ‘work’, instead it is simply considered to be a “duty” that she is expected to do. It stands true not only in the case of India but also other nations across the globe as well.
The demand for recognizing ‘housework’ as a paid job
There is a very popular aphorism ‘some women marry houses’ and it is relevant for most of the families in the world but it goes exceptionally well with the traditional Indian families, where a woman who does household work is often devalued and devoid of proper reverence in her own house. Should this form of disrespect not end? Should women not be appreciated for the dedication and effort that they put into caring for their family?
As the ‘other’ group in society, women’s basic right to liberty and dignity in their place of work or where they live is primarily dependent upon their economic status. For this reason, sections of women from different parts of the world have demanded salaries for housewives as compensation for the amount of effort exerted in taking care of the household. This demand has been perceived in different ways by different groups of people.
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In India, initially this idea was put forward by Krishna Tirath, former minister of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, who announced that the government had taken into consideration, mandating salaries for women involved with housework. However, this idea of quantifying the efforts of women could never come into action due to a change in the government in 2014. This matter was put on hold for 6 years until it was finally prompted in the election agenda of Tamil politician and former actor Kamal Hassan, who believed that paying salaries to homemakers would be instrumental in ensuring that the work of women is exalted and that they don't feel powerless in their own homes.
This idea was welcomed by some while criticized by others who called it ‘vague’ and ‘worthless’. The very contention of the people against this idea is based upon the argument that women do not need to be paid for being mothers and wives. They argue that providing women with wages for their household chores would confine them to their houses and shut the door on the paths that have been opened for them towards their freedom and independence after so much struggle. It would also result in the families that have gained little awareness of gender equality, derailing from this path. Women would then be discouraged to pursue education as their main priority as they would be getting paid for doing household chores. Another contention towards this vision is that if this idea is enacted, extra pressure would be put on the State to pay each and every woman homemaker.
As mentioned earlier, Kamal Hassan's demand has been perceived ambiguously. Not being intimidated by the critics however, the supporters of this idea consider it to be a step towards the enlightenment and illumination of women. A homemaker or a housewife works 24x7 without any provision for a ‘casual leave’ to provide a comfortable lifestyle to her family. The same amount of work, if done by a housemaid, can merit a healthy amount in monthly expenditure. However, there is no recognition of the same when done by a family member. Supporting these notions, the vision put forward by Kamal Hassan was backed by politician Shashi Tharoor, who opined that remuneration of the services done by a housewife would lead to recognition of their unpaid work, enhance their power and bring respect to their anatomical differences.
There is no coherent statistical data available on girls and women who live in houses plagued with violence and abuse because they are financially dependent on their husbands or the other male members in a family, which also depletes their power of decision making in their homes, especially regarding their work. However, statistics do show that only 25% of boys and men over the age of 6 years are engaged in unpaid work as compared to women who make up 80% in the same category.
Therefore, monetizing ‘household’ work is significant not only to recognize women’s efforts but also to build an environment where they are treated as no less than men. It would abolish the position of men as "providers" in a relationship. Although a question that arises is ‘who’ would pay them? It should not be their husbands or ‘working’ males of the family as that would only reinforce their position as “owners” in the relationship and would degrade the situation. Therefore, the best option is considered to be the State bearing the cost of remuneration to housewives, in this regard.
Other than boosting family income and increasing the confidence of women in society, paid housework would also expand the economy of our nation. This can be substantiated by the fact that the female labour workforce in India has been declining (31.79% in 2005 to 20.52% in 2019; World Bank Report). Moreover, IMF reported that increasing the female labour workforce participation rate to the same level as that of men would lead to a 27% increase in the GDP of India and one way of doing this is by giving salaries to housewives and monetizing their work. In the light of these advantages, the honorable Supreme Court has also commented in favour of the scheme by stating that fixing notional income for a homemaker is a way of accepting that the activities performed by them contribute to the economy in a very real sense and the society depends upon their sacrifices as well.
This concept is not new to the world. As said by famous novelist and academician C. J Lewis, “The homemaker has the ultimate career. All the other careers exist for one purpose – and that is to support the ultimate career." This quote implicitly states that the homemakers' profession is the epicenter of all the other jobs, but is ironically not paid at all. However, the situation is changing in many parts of the world for the better good. For instance, in Venezuela, the government pays homemakers 80% of the minimum wage. The amount is not very large, but as always said, small steps can make significant differences. The question is then ‘if they can do it, why can’t we?’. If the current scenario is changing and all occupations are being viewed with dignity then why can’t the same be applied to the occupation that is the focal point of all the others? In India, this vision should be supported for building a better nation.
Effective implementation of such a scheme would require the role of both the people and the government which includes undertaking measures like:
1)Families and administrative bodies ensuring that the education of women is not compromised, nor are they restricted to their homes doing household chores just for the sake of minimum wages.
2)Spreading awareness to make people understand that housework is not a menial job but a proper occupation.
3)Housework must be taken into account while conducting various surveys and people engaged in household chores should not be viewed as ‘unemployed’.
With these small steps, we can build a nation where everyone is respected based on what they do and is given an equal position at home as well as the workplace. A nation where everyone lives with dignity, is independent and gets an equal chance at marching forward to achieve the main purpose of their existence.
By Manya Srivastava
REFERENCES:
1.https://medium.com/@darnitoutloud/should-housewives-be-paid-for-their-work-78b0b9ba61
2.https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livemint.com/news/india/salary-for-housewives-time-has-come-says-kamal-haasan/amp-11582899963108
3.https://indianexpress.com/aricle/opinion/columns/houewives-income-moeny-patriarchy-arpan-tulsyan-7138881/
4.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/should-housework-be-a-salaried-profession/aricleshow/80147167.cms
Well illustrated Manya!
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