Marriage counsellors, lawyers and even some housewives are not amused at Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women & Child Development, Krishna Tirath’s move to draft a Bill that would make household chores a “paid for exercise”.
“It is a social security for both men and women to be in a marriage. Will any economic agency be able to render value to the companionship that they mutually provide each other? A man and wife are life two wheels bound by the axle of marriage. Trying to valuate the role of either is gross insult to the institution of marriage,” says homemaker Chindamani Arunachalam.
Women’s rights activist and lawyer Sudha Ramalingam fumes saying it is absurd to calculate the value of services rendered by a wife. “Relationships are not commodities that can be measured in money’s worth,” she says.
Noted Chennai-based psychiatrist Dr Vijay Nagaswami, who has worked on relationships for 25 years, points out that every husband should value his wife’s role but adding monetary value to the relationship would ruin the family fabric. “There has to be recognition to the role that she plays in the family. While you can valuate the cleaning and food she cooks, how can you put your finger and valuate her nurture and in the case of your child, the milk she feeds?” he points out.
Writer K Karuppan agrees and says that trying to value the role of a woman in her own household is utterly unacceptable. “...That such a suggestion should come from a Union Minister, and a woman no less, is a sign of an utter lack understanding of women’s issues and is a sad reflection on our societal priorities,” he avers.
Comments
0 comment