India : Womens Unpaid Household Work Equals Countrys Budget!

- By Sachin Kumar Jain (Vikas Samvad)

-
India is the second largest market for the world and everything is accounted in/for Economic Growth,
but are we really accounting womens contribution in countrys economy and wellbeing? However, the
enormous household chores and responsibilities and farm and labor works done by the women have not
yet been acknowledged on countrys canvas of socio-economic policy framework. In fact, it is the society
and our culture that determine that the household chores belong to the domain of womens
responsibility and activity. And more so, the society Some Betraying Examples
determines that this work shall carry no economic In 1979, a homemaker (woman) had died in a
value! However, it would be of interest to know road accident and a legal battle for
that if womens regular household work were compensation ensued. The Delhi High Court
assessed even at the wage rate of skilled labor, it assessed the work as worthy of
works out to Rs. 16.29 lakh crore (equivalent to Rs. Rs. 150/- (US $ 2.5) per month.
16.29 trillion or US $271.5 billion) which is above
the Revised Estimates of the annual budget at Rs. In 1991, another woman died in similar
15.90 lakh crore (Rs.15.90 trillion or US $265 circumstances and the ruling came in the year
billion) of the Government of India for the year 1998. Her work was adjudged at Rs. 700/- (US
2013-14! Another significant caveat of the $11.7) per month.
household work is that there is no leave or
holiday for the women. This segment of Supreme Court of India set the worth of
population is beyond the usual definition or another homemaker woman - the Lata
concept of organised or unorganised work. The Wadhwa case at an annual income of
primary task of the 16 crore (160 million) Rs. 36000/- (US $600).
homemakers who happened to be women is to
bear the Round the Clock household The Supreme Court assessed the worth of
responsibilities. Indian society decides and views another woman in the Kaptan Singh case at
this work with a gender perspective, where women Rs. 10000/- (US $166.7) because she belonged
are precious, but recognized as secondary citizen. to an economically weaker family as compared
On the one hand, they are mandated to be the to Lata Wadhwa.
Household Duty Bearers, and on the other hand,
they are forced to be out of the mainstream and Doesnt it occur to us that after all such
so-called productive activities. experience, there is not only a continued
neglectfulness of womens contribution but
Movements and Cycle of actions do not stop at also an injustice is being meted out to them?
home, hence, the workers in this workforce never
or cannot go on strike! Imagine as to what would happen if this workforce did go on strike. No food no
cleanliness, clothes will remain unwashed and the family would not be able to play host to the guests!
Even if this line of argument is not viewed from the gender lens, role of women must be fully
acknowledged and respected. Anything done to dismiss this role leads to negation of the domestic
(household) work and a crafted violation of womens right to socio-economic justice.

Another example of a fatal accident occurring to a woman Compensation in case of her death is
negligible compared to that of a productive man in terms of economy. It happens because womens
contribution is never gauged. Whenever this aspect is taken up for a debate, a section comes up
1
questioning the very need to measure the role of a mother, daughter, wife or a sister in monetary
terms. They question as to why womens sensitivity should be put on an economic scale. Another
section comes up with an argument to say that after
all, expenditure is also incurred on women who are Computation of labor/Categorization
engaged in the household chores on their food, Lets Get to Understanding It!
living, medicines etc. In fact, when we reflect on Our population is divided in to two segments
these different facets, we witness as to how working population and non-working
different layers of inhuman perspectives towards population. Only those people who are full
the women are uncovered. We just ought to time or part time engaged in earning
acknowledge that womens labor and contribution (economic generation) are considered to
deserve to be recognized and respected. Now that comprise the working population. The non-
the country considers economic progress as a working population includes those who do not
measure of development, it becomes all the more do any work. They include students, beggars
necessary to ascribe an economic value to womens and the group including the maverick and
contribution. those performing the domestic chores. Census
2011 has estimated the number of non-
It needs to be observed that the government has working population at 72.89 crore (728.9
been perpetrating discrimination against the million). The authoritative definition states
workers and womens work on account of gender that these are the people who have not
bias. This is the reason that there is no concrete and undertaken work of any nature in the
honest yardstick available to measure womens role reference time period. These are the people
in making up the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of whose activities or work have not been
India. Indias census focuses on the status of non- considered as part of economic contribution.
working population only in economic terms. If you Out of these 72.89 crore non-working people,
believe that washing clothes, maintenance of home there are 16.56 crore (165.6 million) persons
cleanliness, cooking food, care of the children,-sick whose main work has been discharge of
and senior -parents also amounts to work with household responsibilities. The most notable
economic value, one will be able to better fact is that 96.50% of these 16.56 crore
appreciate this data. people, as large as 15.99 crore (159.9 million)
are the women. The latest data from the
Most significantly, rearing the children rather ought Census 2011 show that only 34.49 lakh - 3.45
to be considered a much specialised work. Early million - (3.5%) men carry out homemaking
Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) entail a function as their main work. Homemaking
very thoughtful attention in childs physical, women carry out the household
emotional, cognitive and social development. A responsibilities like cooking food, cleaning
mothers role in the early childhood care and utensils, washing clothes, fetching/filling
development shapes and lays the foundation of an water, and cleanliness maintenance in home
individuals development. Womens role in this etc. However, these homemaker women have
arena, if disregarded, would only be self-defeating for the
notsociety at large. Absence
been considered of this early care is
as workers!
fraught with ethical peril. Womens fostering care goes a long way in ensuring the sound development
of children. Should the women disengage from the need to render a continuing role in consistence with
the childs need (ostensibly for pursuing the so-called economic activity), the outcome could be perilous
for the virtually abandoned children!

In year 2004, the Delhi High Court had considered household work as equivalent to skilled work. It did so
because there was no other scientific measure available to gauge the domestic household work.
Considering the household work as a skilled work, if we ourselves were to evaluate it, we will have to
2
shell out Rs. 283/- (US $4.72) per day as the minimum wage (the basis derived from dividing the country
in to 5 zones to work out the average minimum wage because it is the state governments which
determine the wage. One wonders as to the impact this payout has on the economy!

Different state governments have applied different wage rates. The wage for skilled work is Rs. 224/-
(US $3.73) per day in Gujrat, Rs. 234/- (US $3.9) in Bihar, Rs. 260/- (US $4.33) in Maharashtra, Rs. 327/-
(US $5.45) in Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 320/- (US $5.33) in Punjab, Rs. 380/- in Mizoram, Rs. 403/- (US $6.72)
in Delhi, Rs. 237/- (US $3.95) in Haryana and Rs. 935.76 (US $15.60) per day in Uttarakhand. It has been
worked out an average for the country as a whole from this data and found that if womens work were
taken as unskilled at the rate of Rs. 283/- (US $4.72) per day, the overall annual wage bill for 15.99 crore
(159.9 million) women would be a whopping Rs. 16.29 lakh crore (equivalent to Rs. 16.29 trillion or US
$271.5 billion)! And that this is not a one-off contribution. They continue to render it day-on-day and
year-on-year without any break, and that too in silence.

The society does not ascribe any value to the household work!

A household in itself is that unit of the market where the earnest need for measuring the system of
income and expenditure is rather kept under the covers. The division of labor has been done in such a
manner that the tasks pertaining to cooking food, maintaining household cleanliness, cleaning utensils
and washing clothes have been dumped upon the women. When a woman of the household attends to
these tasks, these are considered to be the part of her natural responsibility. On the contrary, when an
outside professional person (generally a woman only) carries out these same tasks, their economic value
is assessed.

Supreme Court of India recognises womens household work as participation in economic activity

Work or labor does not seem to have been defined within the perspective of human values. If it were
done so, undoubtedly womens work would have been credited with and valued. The moot question is
as to why the domestic work is categorized as unproductive work. There have been occasions when
the courts have underlined the need to recognise the value of domestic household work. An order by
Justices G S Sanghvi and A K Ganguli of the Supreme Court can be cited as an example whereby they
raised the compensation for the family keeping in view the ascribed economic value for the work of the
deceased woman.

Women Rights Organisations recognizing womens rights have proven that every woman is a working
woman, whether she is engaged in an income generating activity or the homemaking, albeit the
unpaid one. There is a clear view that there is an urgent need for Recognition, Reduction and
Redistribution of womens work at large, where House-hold Duties need to be shared amongst the
household members and not left to the women alone. In the same vein, motherhood is also the right of
every woman. A study on the Garhwal Himalayan region of Uttarakhand published in Mountain
Research Journal titled, Contribution of women in familys food and economic security informs that
the women reported they did not do any work. However, when their activities were analysed, it was
reported noticed that whilst the men in the region worked on an average for 9 hours a day, the women
were toiling for 16 hours a day. In case the then applicable rate of minimum wages were applied, men
would have earned Rs. 128/- (US $2.13) per day whilst the income for the women would have been at
Rs. 228/- (US $3.8) per day. When some of these activities were assessed on the market rates, it was
found that the family would have spent as much as Rs. 34168/- (US $569.5) a year for obtaining things
3
like wood, animal feed, honey, water and vegetables etc. However, the womens unpaid work goes
unrecognized.

The Evangelical Social Action Forum and Health Bridge (Nagpur) had carried out a research study in
2009. The findings show that if the nine types of work which the women perform as homemakers were
to be paid for, it would get them Rs. 1350/- (US $22.5) per month in the rural areas
and Rs. 2750/- (US $45.8) per month in the urban areas.

Womens work as homemaker is in fact a vey important and direct contribution to our economy.
However, it is made to seem invisible. It must be acknowledged so the needful initiative are taken up
duly recognizing them as workers along with health, nutrition, social security and education, their
political-economic-social-cultural entitlements are secured.

Total No-working Population, Persons Engaged in Household Work and Valueless Price of Womens Work
At a Glance for India and major States
India/States Non- Males Females Total No. of Males Females Annual Equivalent
productive Cr. Cr. Persons on Cr. Cr. (Million) Economic Value of
Population (Million) (Million) Household (Million) Household Work
Cr. (Million) Work Rs. In Lakh Crore/Rs.
Cr. (Million) in Billion/US $ Billion
India 72.00 29.00 43.00 16.56 (165.6) 0.57 (5.7) 15.99 16.29/16286/271.50
(720.00) (290.00) (430.00) (159.90)
Madhya 4.10 (41.00) 1.74 2.36 0.7586 (7.59) 0.0288 0.7297 0.7435/743.5/12.39
Pradesh (17.40) (23.60) (0.29) (7.30)
Chhattisgarh 1.33 (13.30) 0.56 0.76 0.1943 (1.94) 0.0057 0.1886 0.19220/192.2/3.20
(5.60) (7.60) (0.06) (1.89)
Delhi 1.12 (11.20) 0.42 0.69 0.3372 (3.37) 0.0042 0.3330 0.33930/339.3/5.65
(4.20) (6.90) (0.04) (3.33)
Rajasthan 3.86 (38.60) 1.72 2.14 0.6565 (6.56) 0.0205 0.636 (6.36) 0.64800/648/10.80
(17.20) (21.40) (0.20)
Uttar 13.00 5.00 7.00 3.27 (32.70) 0.15 3.12 (31.20) 3.184/3184/53.07
Pradesh (130.00) (50.00) (70.00) (1.50)
Gujrat 3.56 (35.60) 1.34 2.21 1.00 (10.00) 0.0258 1.46 (14.60) 1.066/1066/17.77
(13.40) (22.10) (0.26)
Punjab 1.78 (17.80) 0.65 1.12 0.58 (5.80) 0.0234 0.56 (5.60) 0.577/577/9.62
(6.50) (11.20) (0.23)
Haryana 1.64 (16.40) 0.66 0.97 0.42 (4.20) 0.01 0.41 (4.10) 0.4184/418.4/6.97
(6.60) (9.70) (0.10)
Himachal 0.33 (3.30) 0.14 0.18 0.0545 (0.54) 0.0024 0.0521 0.0531/53.1/0.885
Pradesh (1.40) (1.80) (0.02) (0.52)
Maharashtra 6.29 (62.90) 2.56 3.73 1.52 (15.20) 0.05 1.47 (14.70) 1.501/1501/25.02
(25.60) (37.30) (0.50)
Bihar 6.93 (69.30) 2.90 4.00 1.45 (14.50) 0.06 1.39 (13.90) 1.42/1420/23.67
(29.00) (40.00) (0.60)
Source: India Census 2011 and Economic Evaluation for year 2014 based on Average Minimum Wage Rate for Skilled Worker

4
 Lets ponder over these concerns

No thought has ever been accorded to the question as to the age when women commence the
homemaking work and when they retire from the same!
The existing mindset nurtures the belief that womens labor in homemaking function is not required to be
assessed. After all, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is more concerned with the materialistic things and
their consumption as compared to the human values.
This very category of work gets economic and productive status when it is carried out in other contexts
outside ones home! Thus, there are two sets of yardsticks and beliefs applied to the same labor.
If the womens role in homemaking is considered work and labor, we will find that the ratio of work
between the men and women to be equal. At the present time, womens contribution amongst the
working population is taken only at 31%.
Though the women in reality make an enormous economic contribution, this group of labor does not have
any policy, programme or budgetary allocation to meet its rights pertaining to health, nutrition,
motherhood, security, justice, economic independence and social equality.
The National Food Security Act for the first time did make a modest provision for motherhood. However,
the Government of India does not appear to be inclined to implement it with commensurate earnestness.