Paid Housework
Assembly elections are due in Tamil Nadu and Makkal Needhi Maiam, the political party led by superstar of South Kamal Haasan, has made an election promise to pay the women for their work at home. This has also been endorsed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Well, for MNM, this might be a move to attract one of the largest voter bases, i.e. Women but is it actually feasible? (Source: www.sheroes.com) First of all, salaries are for workers who actually contribute to our GDP, where is the home-maker's role? Well, homemakers do not directly build a product or provide chargeable services to others. But, they do provide services to the earning members of the family for free, which results into having a good enough lifestyle at much cheaper rates. This means industries can keep them happy in lower salaries too and invest the saved capital in contributing more to GDP. So, there do exist indirect benefits for the economy. But, how does one measure and value the household work? For example, a w...