What is the remuneration that you would pay for a somebody who does housekeeping for you, cooks and cleans for you, babysits and feeds the kids, helps them with their homework, shops for groceries and does all the other odd jobs around the house like ironing clothes, getting the plumber and electricians done, entertaining guests? My guess is at least 90% of us would be unable to afford to hire such a housekeeper.
Because what we are talking about is a job done by three maids together, which would cost at least Rs 25,000 a month even judging by the low pay standards for Indian domestic help. In almost all Indian households that is the job done by the mother or wife of the house – the homemaker. And what is the price that the government puts on the job of a homemaker? Rs.1,250 a month!
Two months ago, in December 2014, the Tamil Nadu accident tribunal reviewed the case of a 31-year-old woman Selvi, who died in an accident leaving a 5-year-old daughter behind. When her husband applied for compensation, this is the amount, Rs.1,250 that was fixed by the tribunal since Selvi was ‘only a homemaker’ and there were no documents to prove that she brought in an income. The episode is appalling by itself. But it raises questions on how everybody from the government, the society, the market and the families themselves view the homemaker.
Latest census data shows that 45 per cent of the women between the ages of 15 and 59 are confined solely to domestic duties. These, by the way, are women who have reported themselves as ‘not working’ and shockingly enough, this amounts to about 16 crore women, who form India’s invisible working force. Invisible, because there is no evidence to show that they are working.
Now this is partly due to social pressures. But the other part is also the result of poor economic policies that have offered no opportunities to women. Poor policies that offer no support or opportunities for women to run successful small businesses from within the confines of their home. It is also poor economic, maternal and childcare policies that force many working women to quit their lucrative jobs, and put a stopper to their growing careers after childbirth to join that vast invisible working force of homemakers.
Every year, in the run up to the Budget, we have a large army of financial experts pleading for sops for the housewife – sops that mainly include lowering of LPG prices and vegetable prices. Commodity prices are very, very essential to a housewife’s existence, make no mistake there! But to presume that is the be-all and end-all of what a homemaker wants is an insult to her dreams, abilities and her real contribution to the economy.
There have been many pleas to the government in the last five years to start including housewives’ contribution in the GDP, to pay them for their work, for husbands to give them part of their salary and so on.
If we go by the premise that one homemaker does the work of three maids, then compensating her for that work should at least increase the GDP by 1.5 times, if not double or triple it.
In fact, some years ago, when Robert Eisner a professor at Northwestern University in the USA computed the value of household production in the USA, he found it exceeded 20 per cent of the country’s gross national product. The United Nations too in its Human Development Report indicates that household production accounts for more than 40 per cent of world output.
There has already been news murmurs and requests by women’s organisations to make this a gender sensitive Budget. Besides, the writing on the wall is clear. It is high time the BJP government gave something more for the housewife than just discounted groceries.
Here’s what we think the homemaker should get from the Budget:
Give childcare benefit: Many working women quit their jobs to raise children, at least for the first 10 years. Given the growing cost of education and healthcare for the child, and no double income to support it in many cases, it is imperative that the government provide child care benefit or support in monetary form for all mothers (working or otherwise) with children at least until the age of 12. Most of the Scandinavian countries and Ireland do this.
Give tax breaks: There have been many suggestions to the government that husbands should pay part of their salary to their wives in parity with her household duties. That proposal completely misunderstands the economics of unpaid work, since it does not increase the household’s income. It just forces the husband to hand over his income to his wife, which anyway happens since she handles the logistics of the household. Instead single income families should be given tax benefits or breaks, to mitigate the pressure of managing household costs in this inflated economy.
Extend SME benefits: With PM Modi’s Make in India, there has been much focus on improving the Small and Medium Entreprises (SME) sector. But those benefits have only been given to the ‘organised’ cottage industry. There is also an unorganised cottage industry – the regiment of homemakers who run small businesses like tailoring, craftswork, catering, tuitions, beauty parlours and pretty much anything else that they can manage. By just extending the SME benefits to them alone, much good can be done for these struggling homemakers. Give them options of either easy access to micro loans or material subsidies. Put them under the tax purview if you like, but give them the opportunities to grow in what they do.
More on>> Money
