Consumerism seems to be the hallmark in all the UPA’s proposed bills. Even as the dust over the FDI in retail and cut in the LPG cylinders is yet to settle down, the proposal to formulate a bill through which a percentage of a man’s salary would be transferred to his wife’s account to compensate her for the domestic work she performs for the family bears the stamp of ‘Manmohanomics’.
In a country, in which 90 per cent of workers are employed in the unorganised sector and where 77 per cent people are believed to be living by spending as low an amount as Rs.20 a day, the idea by the Ministry of Women and Child Development would be a sure recipe for family discard.
Instead, the government should try to bring economic empowerment to the womenfolk by creating employment opportunities. Varghese Kurien has already set a fine example in Anand in Gujarat, which made thousands of rural women to contribute to their families economically, while at the same time, boosted the milk production.
Syed Sultan Mohiddin
Kadapa, A.P.