Census: House- wife = Beggars

Read below an article in HT about the discrimination “awarded” to Indian housewives- HOMEMAKERS. No wonder the Census survey was so biased about women.

It seems we still are in 18th century and completely immersed in Ignorance. I fail to understand why a statutory punishment is not allocated for such discriminations? Isn’t “Census” too a part of Indian Government? And ruled by the same Constitutional Laws?

A “home- maker” is put under the same bracket as a “Sex- worker”, “beggar” and “prisoner”. Why don’t the sex- workers really call upon an angry demonstration for being put under economically unproductive segment? Do we know that they are being trained to speak in “English” for the approaching Commonwealth Games; besides other grooming skills?

Worse, if beggars and prisoners are being recognized under the same bracket as house-wives; now would that be safe to assume that INDIAN HOUSEWIVES are really the “tormented class”? In simpler version, being an Indian “house-wive” is equivalent to have committed a heinous crime. And, it’s eventually as pitiable a condition as that of a beggar. I AGREE.

Cheers..!! For the Commonwealth Games..

SC slams govt for equating housewives with beggars

source: Hindustan Times, 24th July, 2010

Scanned Image of the article in HT. Click for a bigger image

In a landmark judgement, Supreme Court (SC) has said housewives are employees and their ‘gratuitous’ services to their husbands and children can’t be taken for granted. It has also taken strong exception to the government clubbing them with prostitutes, beggars and prisoners in the Census. A bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly reversed an Allahabad High Court verdict that awarded Rs 2.5 lakh to the family of a woman killed in a road accident because the victim was just a housewife.

The court had considered the victim’s monthly income as Rs 1,250 and put her in the category of non-workers. SC increased the compensation to Rs 6 lakh and asked the insurance company to pay Rs 50,000 to the family.

Slamming the government’s “insensitive approach”, the court said Parliament should revisit the Motor Vehicles Act and matrimonial laws to remove the existing “gender bias”.

In two separate, but concurring judgements, the SC Bench slammed the government for classifying about 36 crore women in the country as non-workers in the 2001 Census.

SC said the bias was “shockingly prevalent” since housewives had been equated with beggars, prostitutes and prisoners — a category not engaged in economically productive work.