The Hindu Business Line : Gender budgeting — The value of a homemaker's meal

While there is some merit in the demand that a value be put on women's unpaid domestic work, it could distract from other more women-friendly measures.

WOMEN'S groups are demanding that women be given more opportunities for earning, and that the unpaid women's domestic work is valued.

While the intention of those demanding these measures is good, there is a need to reconsider the demands because that may end up increasing the burden on women and distract from other more women-friendly measures.

In a study of the Budget undertaken for the National Commission of Women, Ms Asha Kapur Mehta of the Indian Institute of Public Administration places the highest priority on poverty reduction through construction of rural infrastructure to improve the conditions of rural women.

Speaking of Priorities in Budget Allocation viewed through a Gender and Poverty Sensitive Lens, she quotes other scholars to the effect that "additional government expenditure on roads has the largest impact on poverty reduction."

It has been further noted by women's groups that linking of all villages with the PHCs with an all-weather road would lower maternal mortality.

Clean drinking water too is very important. Ms Mehta quotes a World Bank study to the effect that 21 per cent of all communicable diseases in India are related to water.

It is estimated that every year 15 lakh children die of water-related diseases. She quotes other studies that women spend over two hours and walk about 1,000 meters to collect 190 litres of water per day per household.

The availability of clean drinking water in the neighbourhood would lead to less work and better health for women.

Second, gender-sensitive economic policy should take a relook at the income-tax structure. At present, working women are given an additional Rs 30,000 standard deduction in their salaried incomes.

Few women are able to avail themselves of this relief, as 75 per cent of them are homemakers.

They cook for their husbands which increases his working capacity yet they do not "work". Thus, both the working woman and the homemaker earn. The working woman earns herself while the homemaker earns through her husband.

Thus, the homemaker should also be entitled to Rs 30,000 standard deduction in the salary of her husband. The work undertaken by the homemaker will be recognised and honoured by doing so. The third issue is that of distribution of jobs in the organised sectors. The salary is much higher than in the unorganised sectors. However, there is no policy at present for an equitable distribution of the few jobs available in this sector.

In a few families both husband and wife hold these prized jobs while other families do not get a single job.

The total number of jobs in the organised sector is about three crore. These jobs can be distributed among 1.5 crore families where both husband and wife work or among three crore families where one of the spouses works.

It would be women-friendly if only one person per family is given job in the organised sector. This will encourage husbands of working women to stay at home and take care of the family as house-husbands. It will spread the benefits of these jobs among three crore women.

Fourth, there is a need to relook at dowry. Indeed dowry has become a menace. Often, the dowry is appropriated by the husband's family and the woman is left hapless. India has rightly sought to correct this perversion by banning dowry.

However, this is leading to an exactly opposite result — the woman is deprived of her share in her father's property.

Traditionally, the daughter gets her share as dowry. The woman is deprived of her share by rejecting dowry. The need was to deprive her girl's in-laws, rather than the girl, access to dowry. Dowry should be given in largest possible amount so that the daughter has financial security in her married home. An investment of Rs 1 lakh would beget the daughter a monthly income of Rs 500, which will get her respect among the in-laws and also provide financial security.

Thus, a provision should be made to give tax relief on such dowry on which the woman alone has rights and cannot be easily encashed for 10-20 years.

The fifth issue relates to the living conditions of women in the rural areas. Schemes to encourage the making of personal toilets and improved chulhas should be implemented. However, the purpose of these schemes should be limited — to break the mental lethargy.

Ultimately these facilities will have to be provided from the family incomes. The provision of adequate wage work to the breadwinner is the prime requirement.

The present policy, however, is to first impose higher taxes on the people and impoverish them, then provide "relief" in the form of personal toilets. The main beneficiary of such a tax-and-spend regime is the government bureaucracy. This is a sure method of keeping the people poor and dependent on government doles.

Such schemes should only be implemented for a short period to break the lethargy of the rural people. Two things should not be done. One, additional burden of work and earning should not be put on women.

The responsibility of household work remains that of the women, even in industrialised countries, due to various reasons. The woman's economic empowerment leads to a double burden. The husband often controls the income earned by her.

Women who borrow money in the rural areas often find themselves in deep trouble because they have to work double time to repay the loan. Thus, there should be schemes which empower women without imposing an additional burden on them.

Second, the talk of `valuing' women's unpaid domestic work should be reconsidered. Ironically, a dinner cooked by a housemaid adds to the national GDP but not the one cooked by the homemaker.

But in asking for economic valuation of women's work implicitly, one accepts that economic value is the most important one. This is capitalism at its most inhuman form that, as Marx said, reduces all human relations to money. One must resist this approach.

(The author, a freelance writer, can be contacted at bharatj@nda.vsnl.net.in)