CHENNAI: The work done by
women for household consumption is not counted as economic work by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), and planning should take into account the domestic work women do so that they lead a healthy and productive life, former environment minister
Jayanthi Natarajan has said.
Speaking at a seminar on poverty held here on Monday, Natarajan said, “A woman spends her time cooking, cleaning, fetching firewood and drinking water – which you will see so many of them in Chennai’s urban slums doing this summer.
The government should see that in its gender budget allocation, facilities of fuel and drinking water are made easily available to them.”
She recalled her repeated attempts to make
household work by women get included in the
census.
CPM leader U Vasuki, who spoke at the seminar, said: “Farmers are not committing suicide due to failing love affairs or impotency, as Union minister Radha Mohan pointed out, but due to the lack government attention and budgetary allocation.”
After neo-liberal policies were introduced and the central government started following them, the entire approach had changed, she said. “Now they focus more on forcibly acquiring farmers' lands, for which they are trying to bring in an act. The MS Swaminathan Committee had come up with excellent recommendations and none of them have been taken up. The focus is now on corporatisation of agriculture, real estate and cash crops.”