The Unpaid Burdens

India continues to grapple with the harsh reality of gender disparity for women and it may have to wait for hundred more years to achieve full gender parity, writes Pradipta Mohapatra

- Pradipta Mohapatra

NYONE earning more in a home can make a rightful claim to do less in and around the house. True, but not in the case of an earning woman in a family, even if she happens to be the primary breadwinner in the household. From fetching fuel to firewood, from cooking to cleaning, baby feeding to taking care of children and the elderly, our women carry the dual burden of home and work on their shoulders, and get emotionally engaged in taking care of upset children; deal with family rows and try out amicable solutions to bigger issues that any member of the family may be confronting. They put in a ‘triple shift’, undertaking at least three times more unpaid household work and care than their male counterparts in a family. A dirty home stays neat and clean if it is best left to women in the family has since been a gospel for men. Women in our country still devote more time than their work outside to household chores, domestic work and emotional care.