Tirath wants hubbies to pay 'wages' to wives: But her ministry pleads ignorance about the proposal



Union Women and Child Development minister Krishna Tirath

Here's some good news for housewives (and bad news for their penny-pinching husbands).



Husbands might have to give a portion of their monthly income to their wives, if Union women and child development (WCD) minister Krishna Tirath has her way.



Housewives, according to Tirath, are entitled to wages and the women and child development ministry is working on a proposal to make this possible.



'We have got a survey conducted on this theme and are planning to hold more consultations about this plan, which at present is in consultation stage... Whenever we ask housewives what they do, most of them say they do nothing.



'So we feel that a mechanism can be devised to quantify and calculate the value of work that they do for their families. It will give a more socially empowered identity to these women,' Tirath was quoted as saying.



But while Tirath has presented this revolutionary idea to the media, no one in her ministry has been able to corroborate this statement.



In fact, most senior officials are surprised by the confidence with which she has made the statement.



They pleaded complete ignorance on any such proposal or even a survey being commissioned.



The minister, however, seems gung-ho and said she got the idea from NGOs.



The proposal will be discussed with ministers of different states on September 17-18, she said.



Tirath also seems to be drawing inspiration from a UK-based networking site for housewives estimating, for the first time, the annual worth of an average British housewife's job.

The site calculated what an average professional would earn for the work done by a housewife

'The work that women do at home is also economic activity but it goes unaccounted for. If children are sent to a crèche, then money has to be spent.



'If somebody from outside does cooking or any other work, money has to be spent. And the quality of work of homemakers cannot even be compared with others.'



