Don't we want women to work?
I woke up this morning to a report in The Times of India that said a Class 10 Social Science textbook in Chhattisgarh reportedly says that "working women are one of the causes of unemployment" in India.
I almost did a double take. Wait, this is 2015, isn’t it?
Alas, it is, but the really unfortunate part is that even when we walk two steps forward on the gender equality issue, we’re pulled five steps back by reports such as these.
Just last month, the Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi proposed that maternity leave be increased from three months to eight months, and she reiterated the same at the India Today Woman Summit and Awards this Saturday. As a working mother — albeit one who has no intentions of claiming maternity leave ever again — I felt surprised but happy that someone was standing up for working women, because no one who hasn’t been there can ever understand what it means to leave a three-month-old infant at home and haul your recovering and fragile body to work AND attempt to give it your 100 per cent.
Not to forget the guilt.
But then, to be told that you’re the cause of unemployment, I mean, let’s not even go there. It also makes me really angry that a generation of impressionable 16-year-old boys and girls are growing up reading this and being further conditioned to accept that a woman’s place is just within the home.
This is not only a blow to the BJP government (that is currently in power in Chhattisgarh) but also to one of their own ministers who is trying to bring about positive social change. And also to all the progressive companies such as Flipkart that recently announced a new set of maternity benefits. (Okay, maybe I should reconsider that note to self on pregnancy).
Flipkart’s new policy includes six months paid leave for all new mothers, twice the stipulated 12 weeks. After re-joining, they can work flexible hours for four months or choose to take a year-long break and come back to work at available positions at the time. They’re not alone. Accenture, Vodafone, Godrej, and Hindustan Lever are some of the other companies that have enhanced maternity benefits. Policies like these are meant to encourage women to not drop out of the workforce (India doesn’t fare very well when on that parameter in global rankings), and help reassure working girls that they needn’t choose between their careers and their families.
Unless you’re a student in Chhattisgarh. In which case, maybe you shouldn’t even bother entering the workforce in the first place.