She further explained that, on average, Indian women spend 7.2 hours daily on unpaid domestic work and this works out to around 50 hours a week. “For women doing remunerated work outside the home, the burden of domestic work adds to the number of hours she works a day…According to an SBI survey of 2023-24 if the extent of women’s unpaid work is monetised it would amount to a whopping 22 lakh crore rupees a year which was estimated to be around seven per cent of the country’s GDP that year,” she wrote. She added that, “This unpaid work contribution of India’s women, which is a key to family survival, is among the highest in the world. This work by women is socially unrecognised and demeaned as “women not working.” Regretfully your reported comments add to this notion. The stipend to women through these schemes, though meagre and inadequate may be considered social compensation as a right, not largesse or a freebie.” The Communist leader also said that it is another matter that political parties may cynically manipulate a right as a benefit, for narrow electoral considerations.”To criticise the practice of this or that political party launching a scheme just before elections to get the female vote is understandable. But to accuse women of “not being willing to work” because of these schemes is not factual and an injustice to women,” Karat stated. In the letter, she also said that the so-called freebies are poor compensation for the absence of implementation of minimum wages and other workers’ rights.
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