Adding value to home

Hopefully, the Supreme Court’s recent statement that the value of a housewife’s work at home was no less than that of her office-going husband, will now acknowledge and appreciate the invaulable service a homemaker does for her family

While reading out the reparation terms in the case of a couple who died when a car hit their scooter in April 2014 in Delhi, the top court of the country handed an enhanced compensation package to relatives of a couple, stating that it cannot overlook the work that the woman of the house did, just as it couldn’t ignore what the man of the house earned. The decision has fired up a rather wellworn-out discussion around the value of a homemaker’s contribution to society.

Incidentally, as per the 2011 Census, nearly 159.85 million women mentioned “household work” as their primary occupation, as against only 5.79 million men in the same category.

A report of the National Statistical Office, titled ‘Time Use in India-2019’ suggested that women, on an average, spend 16.9% and 2.6% of their day on unpaid domestic services and unpaid caregiving services for household members, respectively, while men spend only 1.7% and 0.8% of the above, respectively.

Homemakers are getting increasingly recognised for the unpaid domestic services they render to their families. In the ongoing debate, while some believe that no amount can justify the worth of a homemaker’s work, others pit the homemaker and breadwinner’s roles at par, stating that a wife tends to her home just as the man of house provides for the monetary needs of the family.

Homemakers are getting increasingly recognised for the unpaid domestic services they render to their families