Do we really recognize the contribution of housewife in our society?

 I am dedicating this blog to all the housewives whose contribution remain unnoticed in the society at large and in the family particularly.

The word housewife defined in the Oxford dictionary says ‘A married woman, whose main occupation is caring for her family, managing household affairs, and doing housework.' Nonetheless, the recent data published by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) says that around 64% women are engaged in domestic work compared to 60% in rural areas among women aged 15. The number of housewives in urban areas is increasing that is because of the growing nuclear families having no extra family members to share the domestic chores, unlike in rural areas where the families are more joint or extended types. The topic draws attention towards, whether the housewives contribution in our Indian society been recognized or not.

Many of us in our daily lives say ‘we don’t want to be a housewife. It will make our entire life horrible’. The matter of fact is that we have least tried to understand the significance of a housewife or tried to recognize her contribution. The biggest misapprehension that many of us carry within us is the person’s monetary contribution to the society has more meaning than the non-monetary contributors. The housewife may not be drawing the salary or may not be having to fix working hours or working policy, but her valuable contribution cannot be overlooked. A woman as a housewife has a significant role to play for a stable society and has meaningful participation in the development process. The unending hours of work a housewife does have less valued by her own family members, the amount of pain she takes to nurture her child are less appreciated by her own husband and in-laws. In reality, she does multiple tasks from cooking to taking care of her husband office tasks without expecting any kind of reward. She supports all family members with immense tolerance, patience, and sense of responsibility.

Let me highlight the consequences of what the housewives go through when their contribution remains unrecognized in the family and society. My mother who is a housewife and been taking care of four daughters all her life to sacrifice all her dreams. After her marriage, she wanted to continue education in law and wanted to learn singing but her commitment to the family and nurturing four children lead her to sacrifice her dreams. She tried her best to give the world of love and care to all the four daughters and her husband. Her entire life went fulfilling her daughter dreams by sacrificing her own aspirations. She not only tried to see her dreams through her daughters but managed well to make it happen. Her unending support remains unrecognized by her in-laws for which time and again they raise a finger on her by saying ‘why educating so much to the girl child which will later be a problem for them to find the right match for marriage.’ This has never stopped her dreaming and sacrificing for her children.

Another example of my friend madhusmita (name changed) who is a housewife and married for last 10 years she has an 8years old daughter. When she first married and came to this family she not only brought valuable gifts for the entire family but she brought along with herself smile to all faces, hope, dreams, and responsibility. Gradually with her presence, the family start celebrating each and every occasion, she took care of everyone needs and tried her best to understand each and every family members. Time and again she failed because her contribution was not recognized and her effort was not appreciated by her in-laws. The unending love and affection for the entire family never stopped her to sacrifice her own health and go beyond her personal capacity to help the family members. Today when she tries to look back and see the entire journey of 10 years her heart ponder with tears. She still says to herself ‘I can, because my love for the family is priceless.'

There is a saying, every relationship is balanced if it’s a give and takes, the person rises with positivity if he/she take along of what he/she gives. The point here that I want to make is that the case of Madhusmita is found in almost all Indian houses. Their sacrifice for the well being of the family need appreciation and recognition she gives herself best to all, but in return, she hardly gets anything back that makes her feel emotionally down and weak at times.

Let me now give you some facts and figure of the value of the amount that would cover the housewife work. According to the United Nations, the unpaid work done by women globally is estimated at USD 11 trillion a year. Globally, women own 1 percent of property overall and possess less than 5 percent of the world’s income. Yet women do a disproportionately high percentage of the work when also accounting for domestic work.

India has not left behind in counting the contribution of the housewives, according to the Supreme Court of India has upheld the economic role of a housewife. It is possible to apply opportunity cost in valuing a housewife’s services. For instance, the monetary value of cooking for family members could be assessed regarding what it would cost to hire a cook or to purchase ready cooked food, or by determining how much money could be earned if the food cooked for the family were to be sold in the locality. Alternatively, the time taken for housewives to produce these services could be compared with the time that is taken to produce goods and services that are commercially viable. This is because the non-financial benefits of housewives are the time spent in attending to children, family members, and the emotional-quotient, of traditional parenting and so on, which cannot be precisely measured.

According to experts, the effective way might be to recognize the contribution of housewives makes to the economy. "It's not about being paid," noting that the economic value housewives create remains within their home, "it's about being valued." If ever there was a time to include unpaid housework in GDP figures, it is now, they say. Working mothers have a stake in this, too: They still do most of the unpaid work in their homes. While society recognizes their role in the conventional economy, housewife stands hidden and unacknowledged in what is termed by Elson as the ‘Economy of Care.'

The society now going towards modernization but no one really tries to read the diary of a housewife. They are the one who works more without any pay and recognition. It is high time the society should remove the norms they have created for the housewife as ‘unproductive consumers' of the family. The family should understand her needs when she takes care of others need, she should also be appreciated for her effective contribution in positive ways, her presence should be recognized in the family as a sound decision maker. 

Wilderness at its best!

It was dream come true to travel to South Africa and Europe. I have always tried to make most of the opportunity that comes to me in any form, I can never lose an opportunity when it comes to travel! it was big chance for me to travel to some of the best destinations of the world the Cape Town, Belgium and Netherlands. In this blog I will have two separate sections of my travel to South Africa and Europe. 

My travel to South Africa was the best ever journey in abroad. Started with academic activities and ended with wonderful road trip with my South African friend (Catherine Townsend) and her beautiful family. South African's have big influence of the dutch communities. They have largest Cape Malay communities having dutch affiliation. I was amazed to experience the Cape Malay food. I find Cape Town to be less African culture, it is rather mixed culture with Asian and European communities as well. The city was surrounded with one of the large mountain called the Table Mountain, it has its own history and one of the best tourist attraction place of Cape Town which enlighten the entire city. Ohh yes, how can one miss the opportunity of visiting Nelson Mandela, the great freedom fighter who was imprisoned for 18 years in Robben Island  The Island which is one of the important UNSECO world heritage of South Africa has it own history of many political prisoners. To reach the island one has to take ferry from Waterfront cape town to Robben Island which is about 12km. I felt each site in the island have engraved with pain and victory of freedom. We were all touched with the narration of the history by one of the political prisoner who works as tourist guide in the island. 

The academic activities remain the best, meeting scholars from different parts of the world, having close research interactions on various topics and team work in summer school was eye opener. We were put up in a halls in the University of Cape Town called the 'All Africa House', I was surprised to see the kind of facilities they provided us. The houses were beautifully equipped with cooking areas, decent bedrooms and eating areas. The stay with different research scholars and working together each day gave me so much of motivation. The academic activities ended with a international conference of presenting my research findings. 

Soon after the conference me and my friend took road trip to Eastern Cape Town, crossing some of the beautiful beaches which is rather termed as 'bays' than beaches such as the Jeffreys Bay, Mossel Bay, Cannon rocks...it was breath taking experience going though the beautiful landscapes of rocky mountains, fruits orchards, rivers, forest and animal herds. The stay in George, Cannon rocks and Cango caves was best learning experiences. The drive inside the Addo Elephant Park was the most amazing encounter with the wild life's the Zebras, Kudu, Elephants, Jackals. The Cango Caves and Big Tree was another beautiful world heritage we visited. The Ostrich farms at Oudtshoorn was lovely to watch the big birds. The road trip ended with long drive from Oudtshoorn to Cape Town City with my stunning beautiful kids Zola and Lindi. The journey of wild Africa didn't end in Southern Africa, on my way back to India I stayed a day at Addis Ababa i.e. falling in North

of Africa . It was great to feel the real Africa in Ethiopia. The people were found to be fond of Indian cinema and traditional Ethiopian music. I could get the essence of India in Addis. It was amazing short stay experience in Ethiopia, I would never regret of missing the flight and staying in a country which was not in my travel list. I was not only taking some of the stunning African stuff with me but a whole bunch of wild Africa experience along with me to India, murmuring to myself  "WILDERNESS AT ITS BEST"

Let me now take you to Europe which was another breath taking travel experience, although it was not a very long stay but learned a lot from Brussels and Amsterdam city. I find Brussels as more commercialized place having big multinational companies and the country with robust economy in the Europe. The place is rather a major center for international politics. The well preserved world heritage point the Grand Place and Manneken Pis has its own beauty to unwrap history of Brussels. The love for seeing the country of windmills and traditional houses been long awaited visit to Amsterdam. The Dancing houses  and canals were the spot of attraction in the city. It was fascinating to know that people do swimming competition in summer in those canals where many big Hollywood celebrities have already swam. The entire city seems to be traditionally preserved and lively, people seems to be enjoying riding cycles and having beer bike party on the street. The Anne Frank house  house was another world heritage place to experience the history of Jewish people escaping from Nazis in the world war. Although I could not visit Paris and other historical places but I was very much satisfied with my small Europe trip to Belgium, Netherlands and Frankfurt.