{"id":12138,"date":"2021-05-02T12:15:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T06:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=12138"},"modified":"2023-04-12T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T05:28:09","slug":"indias-homemakers-being-wooed-by-political-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/indias-homemakers-being-wooed-by-political-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"INDIA\u2019S HOMEMAKERS BEING WOOED BY POLITICAL PARTIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIA\u2019S HOMEMAKERS BEING WOOED BY POLITICAL PARTIES<\/h1>\n

Relevance: Mains: G.S paper I: Social Issues & Sociology<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n

The socio-political message of parties\u00a0promising cash value to homemakers is a recognition of women\u2019s work in a typical male-dominated society<\/p>\n

Why in news?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • India\u2019s\u00a0homemakers have emerged as the new electoral constituency for the ongoing elections in five states.<\/li>\n
  • Some months ago, cinestar Kamal Haasan \u2014who is about to debut his political outfit Makkal Needhi Maiam in Tamil Nadu \u2014 floated the idea of monetising the works of a typical Indian homemaker. His party\u2019s manifesto, released in the last week of March, has promised a monthly Rs 3,000 to homemakers as \u201cvalue rights assistance\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • All political parties, national and regional, promised similar monetary assistance to homemakers during the same period.<\/li>\n
    • Of late, political parties have been offering specific and tangible benefits in their manifestos instead of articulating broad policy measures, each targeting an electoral constituency.<\/li>\n
    • Women in India have, for long, featured prominently as one such electoral constituency to be wooed by political parties.<\/li>\n
    • This coincides with their rising turnout in elections. In the 2014 general elections, only six states saw more women vote than men. This number increased to 16 in the 2019 general elections.<\/li>\n
    • Many parties have women specific manifestos. The list of electoral promises (most of which do get fulfilled through a large number of welfare schemes) is exhaustive \u2014 it ranges from cash incentives for institutional birth to monetary support for education and marriage and even \u201cgifting\u201d household appliances like grinders.<\/li>\n
    • Such targeted support to homemakers serves two purposes: First, it reiterates the importance of women to a political party. Second, monetising a homemaker\u2019s works add to the cash income of a family.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      In a tightly contested constituency, any additional promise may favour the electoral fate of a party. But the focus on a \u201chomemaker\u201d\u2014 out of\u00a0 the overall women of the constituency \u2014 as an electoral priority is not only surprising but also drives one deep into the role of women in India\u2019s electoral politics.<\/p>\n

      Why are political parties specifically targeting homemakers? Is there an immediate context to this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      • Besides, why promise cash support to this segment when general income support schemes to households are already an oft-repeated point in manifestos?<\/li>\n
      • India has an estimated 160 million homemakers. We know how big their contribution is to managing a family.<\/li>\n
      • The share of women in the overall workforce has been dipping in India in recent years, more so during the novel coronavirus disease pandemic.<\/li>\n
      • But consulting agency Deloitte says 95 per cent of the country\u2019s women are \u201cemployed\u201d in household chores as well as agricultural works.<\/li>\n
      • Every day, each woman spends nearly five hours on various household chores (in comparison, men spend 30 minutes). These works are neither paid for nor valued in monetary terms.<\/li>\n
      • The 2011 Census of India termed those engaged in household works as \u201cnon-workers\u201d. There has been a global campaign to fix a value for women\u2019s unpaid works.<\/li>\n
      • The Indian government, in fact, did a pilot study to measure the value of homemakers\u2019 works. This is to recognise women\u2019s contribution which otherwise is ignored as ordinary jobs reserved for women in a typical male-dominated society.<\/li>\n
      • Political parties promising cash value to homemakers, thus, is a leap forward in this deliberation. Its socio-political message is wider, and to some extent, path-breaking.<\/li>\n
      • The results of the state elections will answer whether homemakers in the country bought this electoral carrot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        INDIA\u2019S HOMEMAKERS BEING WOOED BY POLITICAL PARTIES Relevance: Mains: G.S paper I: Social Issues & Sociology Context The socio-political message<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1033,7,844,1038,13,114,1030,1029,1028,1032,1026,1034,1027,1031],"tags":[3837,3835,1696,3838,2670,3843,3842,3839,3841,3840,3836],"class_list":["post-12138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-optional-sociology","category-general-studies-i","category-gs","category-gs-mains","category-society-and-social-issues","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-civils","category-sociology-ias","category-sociology-mains","category-sociology-mains-ias","category-sociology-optional-sociology-optional","category-sociology-scoring-optional","category-sociology-upsc","category-sociology-upsc-mains","tag-electoral-constituency","tag-homemakers","tag-india","tag-manifesto-promises","tag-political-parties","tag-socio-political-message","tag-state-elections","tag-targeted-support","tag-value-for-womens-unpaid-work","tag-womens-contribution","tag-womens-work"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13933,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12138\/revisions\/13933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}