DEBATE COMPETITION
This house believes that household work should not be paid.
DEBATE BEGINS AT 7:00 PM
RULES
1. There will be 2 debators for each slot. (4 in total)
2. Each slot will be divided in minutes. (P denotes Participant)
FORMAT
0:05 minutes- P1- Overview FOR the motion. Word limit- 100-150 words
0:10 minutes- P2- Overview AGAINST the motion. Word limit- 100-150 words
0:30 minutes- P1- Arguments with a word limit of 400 words
0:50 minutes- P2- Arguments with a word limit of 400 words
01:00 hour- P1- Conclusory stance (300 words)
01:10 minutes- P2- Conclusory stance (300 words)
3. Each participant will make 3 comments in total. Every comment must start with
(NAME, FOR/AGAINST).
4. Participants will be judged on the following criteria:
A. Fluency of words/ Style of writing
B. Strength of arguments/ Backhand of research
C. Adherence to the word limit
D. Interactive tone
E. Adherence to the time limit
5. Anonymity is not permitted. The participants must use their registered names and email
accounts to comment during the debate.
The discourse revolving around whether domestic work, starting from taking care of one's loved ones to maintaining one's house has started once again, when Kamal Hassan's political party (MNM) of Tamil Nadu promised salaries to housewives as a part of his election maifesto.
ReplyDeleteI, Medha Nandini, am strongly in support of the proposition- "Household Work should not be Paid." I can list out innumerable reasons for the same. My arguments are based on the impacts of commercialisation of human emotions, the already existing patriarchal norms in the society, and what essentially happens when the terms and conditions of a market economy steps into the four walls of a happy home. I will also further highlight the harmful consequences of putting a "price tag" on the values of responsibility, care and love and quantifying beautiful human relationships. I also aim to make an effort towards pointing out the limitations of policy making for this cause, i.e. payment for household work.
PREET ARORA
ReplyDeleteAGAINST
The debate on paying women for housework will remain incomplete if it does not engage with unequal structures within families and society – gender and caste. ILO defines unpaid work as non-remunerated work carried out to sustain the well-being and maintenance of other individuals in a household or the community (direct and indirect care). Women in India spend more than 9 times the time spent by men on unpaid care work. In actual terms, this is what the gender disparity looks like – 297 minutes of women’s time a day compared with 31 minutes of men’s time a day. The gap is wider in urban India according to Oxfam’s “Time is Up” report of 2020 based on surveys conducted on 1,047 individuals. According to the time use data from the most recent round of the NSSO 2020, women spend 238 minutes (four hours) more on unpaid work each day than men in India. Don’t you; yes you the reader, really want to end this sort of gender disparity? This unrecognized, undervalued full of exertion work can’t just be said as act of love. It’s not commercialization of emotions its recognizing the work! Do you have doubts on this? Raise your voice against this motion with me PREET ARORA.
First of all, domestic work, in the Indian context has been essentially viewed as a domain of the mother or the woman. Time-use data from 2019 gathered by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) revealed that every day, an average Indian male spends 1.5 hours per day in domestic work, compared to about five hours by a female. In such a society, where patriarchal societal norms are so deeply entrenched within the four walls of a house, giving a salary to the woman will further institutionalise these gender norms. A woman will now be given reasons to stay inside the house- the reason that she is being paid for it.
ReplyDeleteNow whatever sacrifices she makes for the family will have a "price tag" attached to it, and obviously, will be a cause for her family members to further forget the emotional investment that she undertakes each and every moment for the sake of her family. I completely agree that it is important to recognise the value of unpaid domestic work. However, creating value isn't about fair remuneration.
For those who advocate for payment of household work, I have some policy concerns regarding the same. Firstly, how would you define "household work?" Will it include the care work that a parent does for his/her child? Will it include the efforts that a father makes to nurture and inculcate moral values in his baby?
Secondly, who would pay for the same? In developing countries like India, will it be easy to formalise this work, for the government, when already thousands of informal workers working in the fields, children working as child labourers have been suffering since time immemorial?
A policy is as good as it's implementation. And in this case, making a policy of this kind in a economically and socially diverse country country like India will only create chaos, confusion, and disturbance. Disturbances not just in the society- but also in a home.
On the other hand, asking men to pay for wives' domestic work could further enhance their sense of entitlement.
By the rationale of the advocates of domestic work being salaried, can't dowry be converted to policy too, the logic being to ensure "at least some gains" are recieved by daughters from the property?
Secondly, family relationships are based on boundless love, care, respect and support for each other. Commercialisation of such human emotions will shatter the very foundations of human relationships. One cannot put a price tag on emotions so precious, and so pure.
A parent, be it the mother or the father, if does something for his child, for e.g. organises his/her desk, he/she does that out of love. Paying him for tasks like these seem naturally absurd and unasked for.
Also, how can we miss out on the effects that this will have on a child's mind? He/She will slowly start believing that all that a mother does for her child is because she is getting paid for it. How will a child's innocent mind be able to capture the essence of what a parent does for him?
Talking of inequality, in a society where everything is for sale, won't life be harder for those of modest means? The more money can buy, the more affluence (or the lack of it matters). It is the very consequence of bringing a market economy into our households turning the society into a market society.
*THE ABOVE ARGUMENTS ARE IN SUPPORT OF THE MOTION*
DeletePREET ARORA
ReplyDeleteAGAINST
IN RESPONSE to the arguments made by my opponent which i found bad in health, i would like to propose that
women since ancient times are forced to work in homes, not voluntarily and it seems men too work in household chores but the real data of rural and backward India is never revealed. sarcastically we all know the reality. the values of motherhood and impact on child.. how is that even related to money? a mother wont lessen her love and care if she start getting remuneration.
is never said to men to pay their wives its responsibility of whole society, after all she is working, its not a charity to women.
paying household work is not a reason for a women to sit more in house, contrary if not paid are they out of house? its neither men or government, its us - society.
Proof - payment can work
In 2007, Sweden, which ranks top on the EU’s Gender Equality Index, introduced subsidies to domestic chores . Thirteen years later, studies indicate that those who opted for subsidies reported more hours of earned income (around $2000 more annually than those in the same bracket who did not avail the subsidies). There seem to be improvements in work conditions for domestic workers too by institutionalizing proper pays and work conditions for them.
further i would like to put together few arguments for why women should be paid in each and every condition
Good source of income
Be it a man or woman whosoever does the household chores must receive its value, its dignity, it will be taken a source of income, it won’t be a burden as it is now. Families will be happy, they can spend more! Why restrain from such a good act then?
Cut the traditional stereotypes
Girls are traditionally “trained” for marriage by being taught how to cook from a very young age. The phrase, “padhke kya karogi, chulha chauka hi to Karna hai” (why study when you have to manage the hearth) has been heard across geographies. Several adolescent girls during the lockdown last year underlined the increased burden of household chores for young girls and the consequent impact on their studies. The pandemic’s impact on unpaid work by women across the globe has already been well documented.
Why don’t we recognize it then?
Professional lines
Domestic work has to be treated as a profession, and workers must be accorded fair wages. Unless there is value associated with domestic work, payment for household chores to homemakers alone can bring about far-reaching changes in the stature of women and gender relationship. Let’s be professional
Necessity
Families are not spaces for equals, but hierarchical institutions with a patriarch and patriarchal rules. Payment for household chores is not independent of these debates and discussions on the larger questions of patriarchy and gender. Take your own stance.
Respect instead of humiliation
Since household work is not paid its not respected too. Only paid lures our eyes, they get value respect and honor. Why not household work then?Household work is something achingly dispensable; provide visibility to unpaid exertion by paying… such simple is this.
And last, but not the least, laws such as this must go hand in hand with universal basics such as labor rights, assured fair living wages for all work, including for domestic work, grievance redressal systems in place, protection from violations of human rights.
MEDHA NANDINI
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion, I would like to say that, I believe that in the longer run, slowly, monetising domestic/household work undertaken with such invaluable and pure emotions, would lead to dehumanisation and alienation of human beings from each other. One would be compelled to look at each and everything from the perspective of profit- making. It will shackle the pure bonds of humanity. It will shake the foundations of the very values that makes us "human." Even today, when Ma cooks her extremely delicious "gajar ka halwa" for me, the sheer happiness and delight on my face and the satisfaction on hers is incomparable to any other emotion, or for that matter any other "object" that can be bought by money.
Therefore, I believe, very firmly, that there are some things that cannot be bought by money. Love, Care, and moral values are some of them.
The recent act in relation to surrogacy laws has banned commercial surrogacy in the country, because of its inherently exploitative nature and the effect that it has on the mental health of the surrogate mother. In the same way, I would never want to commodify the work done by a woman and put that "up for sale."
Markets and monetising human relationships cannot be the solution for eliminating the deep rooted ills in the society.
What is more important than creating a policy for devising a system for making household work salaried is, formulating laws and policies that strengthen women's roles in decision making for the country, rather than making policies that further force them to stay at home. This is the true solution.
Along with that, affordable and adequate childcare and family- friendly policies should be ensured which allow parents to reconcile caring and work. Instead of paying parents, or more specifically women, for household work, a benefits system which recognises women's adequate role in society and offers adequate support for families and children should be established.
Making household work as a "salaried profession" for a woman especially, will be the ultimate nail in the coffin for absolutely any progressive programme centering women. In simple terms, I can further elaborate on this.
Now, in a conservative male dominated rural family, the father can very conveniently be against educating her girl child giving the simple argument that - "well you are going to be paid for household work anyway, why shall we waste our money on your education?" Now imagine how such a policy will disincetivise any attempted towards education of a girl child and woman empowerment.
We need our women, more than anything else, to break the shackles that have chained them since such a long time, inside households, and come out, explore their inherent worth and realise their dreams.
By giving them salary for household works, we would be doing nothing but the crime of forcibly justifying the status quo, and coercing them inside the four walls of a house, when nothing less than the sky should be her limit.
With all due respect for the jury, as well as for my worthy opponent, I hereby rest my case.
Thank You.
- Medha Nandini
MEDHA NANDINI, *IN SUPPORT OF THE MOTION*
DeletePREET ARORA
ReplyDeleteAGAINST
On a concluding remark, i would like to put forward that its not that we are trying to buy love, care, affection or Values of a family or the bond between parents and children with money. the context here is totally different. We too realize the importance of emotions that is needless to be mentioned. The thing is recognition of work .. why are we paying manual-scavengers, sweepers, even maids at home who do same household chores? they shouldn't be paid then. just because same work is in public we are paying? As my cheerful opponent quoted - "well you are going to be paid for household work anyway, why shall we waste our money on your education?" I would like to comment here can we think this in a more optimistic sense - Since men and women both will be economic independent its not father only who will need to decide on daughter's education. money is in hands of women of the family too! this is where women can think and take of decision be it then her own child's education. hence the reason to pay for household chores justifies itself by the statement of my opponent.. and when the money will be in hands of both the sexes the concept of conseratie male society will slowly with time be at it's redundant. its like A BULL'S EYE! u can eliminate patriarchy plus achieving economic independence at same time.
what more can we admire about paying for household chores.
further putting strong arguments from research at end;
A study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its 26 member countries and three emerging economies of India, China and South Africa, said that household production constitutes an important part of economic activity. Since this unpaid work is mostly done by women, neglecting to include it would mean underestimating women’s contribution to the economy. The International Wages for Housework Campaign started in Italy in 1972 under Selma James. It was based on the premise that housework was the basis of industrial work and should be duly paid for. The movement further spread to Britain and America. Silvia Federici, among the founders of the movement, in her book ‘Wages Against Housework’ wrote: “To ask for wages for housework will by itself undermine the expectations society has of us, since these expectations – the essence of our socialisation – are all functional to our wageless condition in the home.”
IF THIS GETS IMPLEMENTED A LOT CAN BE CHANGED- just think your mother won't be anymore dependent on your father for single single pennies! she will live an independent life! can think for betterment of children too! can improve whole lot of family! break stereotypes.......there is no end to this list.
With all due respect i rest my case her and would appeal the audience to wisely take decision with deliberate thinking.
THANKYOU