Hitler said that women’s place was in the kitchen. Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed a similar view not long ago. But social attitudes have changed. Here are some statistics. The National Mission for the Empowerment of Women has calculated that women spend 2.1 hours a day cooking, 1.1 hours a day cleaning and 3.16 hours a day bringing up children. It is not clear what the categories or work specify. One wonders if cooking time includes miscellaneous activities and whether bringing up children is also all inclusive. The figures dished out appear absurd. But the ministry of women & child development at the same time is planning to bring out a law on the basis of such statistics.
Home makers under the proposed law will become home engineers. Will husbands have to pay a certain amount of their salary for wives’ work at home? The new law purports to contribute to women empowerment but it is felt that in effect it will make husbands employers of their wives. The Union Minister for Women & child development, Krishna Tirath has good intentions. According to her, wives should have PAN cards and bank accounts of their own so that they are not left high and dry when their husbands die. But the proposed law should be under sharp scrutiny. First, the amount of work done by women should be carefully assessed. Then comes the question of how much husbands should pay for their women’s work. Finally, due attention should be paid to the urban-rural divide. If the husband earns only Rs 100 a day which is anything but unusual, how much of it should be paid to his wife”?
