Dr Asangba Tzudir
A recent social media trend and which have been widely circulated states that the Supreme Court now recognizes their unpaid household work and which has been valued at Rs. 30,000 per month. The message is accompanied by praise for homemakers as ‘nation builders,’ a kind of recognition long overdue in societies where domestic labour has often been invisible. While this sentiment is admirable, it also raises a pertinent philosophical and social question - What happens when the priceless is suddenly given a price Tag?
For long, the work of homemakers has remained outside conventional economic considerations. Cooking food, raising children, caring for the elderly, maintaining homes, offering emotional support, and preserving family bonds are activities that sustain society. Yet, because these tasks do not generate a pay or salary, or appear in market transactions, they are not included in discussions of productivity and national wealth. Recognizing the value of such labour is therefore a welcome corrective to an economic system that tends to see only what can fit into the scheme of sales and purchases and thereby profits.
However, assigning a monetary figure to homemaking is not without its complications. The moment society says that unpaid household work is worth Rs. 30,000 per month, it changes a very deep human and relational activity into the language of economics. The intention may be good, but the implication is indeed significant. Priceless things like care, affection, sacrifice, and devotion become measurable commodities. The priceless thus acquires a price tag.
Parents do not raise children because they expect wages. Friends do not support one another based on hourly rates. Love, care, loyalty, and commitment belong to a realm of values that transcend market calculations. To reduce them entirely to monetary terms risks losing their true value. The worth of a mother's sleepless nights, a father's sacrifices, or a caregiver's patience cannot be measured or quantified, and which is not subject to any currency.
Yet rejecting monetary valuation altogether would also be problematic. Often such forms of selfless labour which is not ‘recognised’ while comparing with paid labour is brought in within the economic consideration - ‘if only it was paid’. Economic recognition can serve an important purpose. It highlights the immense contribution homemakers make to society and challenges the mistaken notion that those without formal employment are somehow unproductive. Valuation can expose inequality, influence policy, and can also inject a sense of respect for domestic labour. In this sense, the assigned figure should not be seen as a payment for love but as a symbolic acknowledgement of labour that has historically gone unnoticed.
The challenge, therefore, lies in maintaining a balance. Society must recognize the economic contribution of homemakers without reducing their role to economics alone. A homemaker is not a ‘worker’ performing tasks in their house. While society counts paid labour, the homemakers often nurture, educate, counsel, manage, and emotionally anchor the family. These are aspects which cannot be adequately measured by wages, however generous they may be.
Perhaps the real lesson is that some things possess both value and worth, but they are not the same. Value can be counted while worth often cannot. Money may estimate the household labour based on the market equivalent, but it cannot capture the meaning, affection, and human connection embedded in that labour.
While this price tagging is debated, what needs to be remembered is this distinction. Yes, recognition is necessary, and respect is essential, but the dignity of homemaking does not arise from a figure attached to it. It arises from its indispensable role in sustaining families, communities, and nations at large.
And so, in the end, there is a greater danger. The danger does not lie in homemakers being valued at Rs. 30,000 a month but when we begin to believe that their contribution is only worth Rs. 30,000 a month. There are things that are and can be priced, but not everything needs to be measured by a price.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes guest editorials for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
