How important are housewives for the country's economic development?- by Ayushi yadav

Women have always been a prominent topic of discussion. From Vedic age to date, questions about their positions in this male chauvinistic society is subject to debate. Virtually they are worshipped, they are being adorned with gold, but in actuality, they are merely considered to be an object and their contributions have been uncared for.

Roused by the television program which shows how housewives are undermined, how we are pig-ignorant of their contributions to society? How we are heedless of the fact that to what extent they contribute to the country's economic development?

The jobs that housewives perform be it homemaking or child-nurturing are unpaid, although homemaking and child care that involves professionals are being paid. The fundamental point is to assert that the number of efforts that housewives put into household chores, if these services will be included in GDP, then it will amount to a great hike in GDP.

We are nonchalant to how important roles housewives play in economic development. They are the largest consumers, be it grocery, clothing, accessories, they are the ones who decide how much and what to buy. As they are the largest consumers, their purchases decide the economic growth of the country.

Ironically the woman who is merely considered a housewife is a regulator of profits of the multinational companies because it is her who decides whether her family will drink Pepsi or slice, whether her family will use dove or Dettol, whether she will use surf excel or vanish for washing clothes.

Furthermore not restricting my focus to urban housewives, I want to highlight the lesser discussed activities of rural housewives that are economically prominent. Lots of rural women apart from performing the ideal activities of housewives involved in sewing, agriculture, etc, but all this goes in vain because they get no recognition in the country's national income.

Indirectly or directly housewives' contribution is praiseworthy because they are the ones who instill in their family members the virtues of saving and that is the reason, India achieved a 33% saving rate,70% of which comes from the household.

But unfortunately, everyone is callous about their contributions. Overlooking their potential is a huge drain to society. The main motive of this writing is to discuss the consequences of treating millions of hard-working Indian women as economically unproductive and no more valuable than beggars and prisoners. The census of India(2001) has the chapter titled "non-workers" which places housewives in this category along with prostitutes, beggars, and prisoners.

But the surprising thing is that housewives are indifferent to their underestimated value. After conversing with some of the housewives in my locality I am convinced that the strong patriarchal system which persists, shapes their thoughts and lives. According to them, it has been and it is a duty of ideal women to look after her household, to subordinate the men of her family.

A case study accounts that assigning a very low rate , yielded an annual figure for the value of women's unpaid household work of US$12.8 billion assigning it. But herein I am not demanding wage for the household work in which she is engaged in from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm, but rather wants to point out the value of the work already done by the women. The work, carried out without pay, represents an essential contribution of women to society.