Upping Womanual Labour

Context: Giving cash incentives to women to enter the workforce (instead of employing political gimmicks like providing income for housework) will truly act towards the empowerment of the women.

Arguments against providing salaries to women for housework:

• May bring complacency: Such a scheme will relegate women to household work, and may even give men a convenient excuse not to do their part.

Arguments for providing cash benefit: (A Mahila Shram Yojana)

• Uplift Labour Force Participation of Women (LFPW): Gender inequality cannot be reduced without women increasing their share in workforce and men increasing their share of household chores.
• LFPW of women (aged 15-plus) was just 32% in 2004-05, and fell to 22% in 2011-12) and is even lower at 11% at present as per Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
• Global examples: Cash benefits to encourage work - 
•  US’s work incentive scheme Earned Income Tax Credit’s (EITC), sharply increased single mothers’ employment.
• Many European countries have generous family leave policies, including maternity and paternity leave, generous family allowances and childcare to balance family and work life.

Possible issues in providing cash benefits:

• Most people don’t pay taxes: Majority of self-employed, low-skilled jobs, illiterate or low-educated women (who do not pay tax) might not be able to accrue the benefit of a scheme linked to tax.

• Solution: The Indian scheme for rewarding working women does not have to be linked to filing a tax return, and could be done with simple documenting of employment or self-employment.
• The rigidity of cultural norms: Women face familial, cultural and institutional obstacles to work.
• Employers are less likely to hire or promote women based on assumptions on women’s productivity and commitment as long-term employees.
• The trend in women’s employment suggests that gender norms are not changing with the pace of modernity in India like other countries.