While the country moves towards getting ‘unlocked’ to
normalcy after a long period of social isolation, all of us are well aware that
our post-lockdown life is going to be anything but normal. In the past few weeks,
the discussion on and around the pandemic has widened from mere public health crisis
to economic and social spheres and even relationships in the house. A research published
in European Heart Journal by Adriaan A. Voors and colleagues has pointed out
that men are more vulnerable to the virus than women
While we dream of a better
post-lockdown world with more equitable gender roles, the practicality is miles
away from this. Women have been involved in household chores since the
inception of the civil society. But during the lockdown their work load has
manifolded as every member of the household from children to elders are locked
down under the same roof. The existing
structure mandates the women with loads of chores relating to childcare,
in-laws care, husband care and managing the home apart from ‘working from home’
for their paid job. For them it is ‘work from home + work of home’ that too without
the help from maids and babysitters. There is nothing inherently gendered about
the chores but the typical Indian men are not expected to perform household
chores as it is seen as a social demotion. Stereotypically, men are seen as the
providers while the women are seen as the home maker since the dawn of the
civilisation. Obvious thing is that their labour is not paid, and hence is not
valued much. Latest figures by Organisation for economic co-operation and
development (OECD) state that on an average Indian man performs 52 minutes of
unpaid work while an average Indian woman does the work for 5 hours 52 minutes
in a day. The suffering of women does not end with the household work load
only. Sadly, the unfair patriarchal norms have aggravated instead of improving
in the lockdown. National
commission for women (NCW) states that women
and children are at the receiving end of the ballooning cases of abuses. The
factors could be the piling frustration from isolation, unemployment, and as
true as it is- the unavailability of alcohol among others.
An article by Mick
Cunningham in Journal of marriage and Family (2001) states that there is a
positive impact of the egalitarian parents on their children’s practice of
gender norms in adulthood. Family is the first place for development. Though we are en route to
unlocking, the pandemic virus is locked in with us on this planet for a while
if not for much longer. It is the right time to sensitize the young on the
unfair load of tasks that women and girls bear and inculcate certain fair gender
norms in the next generation.
It is grave that in a
progressive country like ours the unfair patriarchal norms are being
perpetuated. What should have been a shared responsibility in principle is
being borne by the women in practicality only. It is said that when a carnivore
gets the taste of blood, its unstoppable. The same is the case, for generations
men have been in dominance. It is not going to be easy a task for this perpetual
system to collapse in a matter of few weeks. It will need intentional effort by
the men themselves. If they have vowed to support each other for the rest of
their lives especially for the next seven births in case of the Hindus during
the nuptials around the sacred fire then they ought to do the ethical. In a
country like India where most people take government mandates as God’s words rather
than their own conscience, puts a solemn responsibility on the administration
to ponder over the gravity of the problem and do the apt as well.
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