Juxtaposing The Great Indian Kitchen and the Kudumbashree: Women, Work and Agency in Kerala

Abstract

The recent Malayalam film ‘The great Indian kitchen’ invoked debate in Kerala on women’s unpaid work in the house. Taking off from this film, this commentary draws on ethnographic research with women participating in the Kudumbashree, a women’s empowerment programme in Kerala, to engage with questions of paid work, household labour and care arrangements within the household. While the film depicts the struggles of a newly wedded young woman in her in-laws’ house and how she leaves the marriage to follow her dreams, this article shifts the focus to the tactics and strategies used by women in their 40s and 50s who remain within the family fold. We look at the experiences of these women who negotiate work and care arrangements to meet their needs. In doing so, we seek to understand what these strategies say about the conceptualisation of women’s agency and independence, particularly in South Asian contexts.

The association between couples' education and gender gap in unpaid care work in India

“…The findings reiterate the local saying, "what is the use of education for girls when in the end they have to roll bread" (Cerrato & Cifre, 2018;Mulumeoderhwa, 2021;Varghese & Ranganathan, 2021). We observed a paradox similar to Chatterjee et al (2018) argument of rising education and declining employment among women in India, while more educated or equally educated wives tend to spend more time on UCW.…”

“…The absence of programs and policies aimed at addressing women's domestic and caregiving responsibilities highlights the need for policy reform in India. Despite the existing women empowerment initiatives, such as Kudumbashree in Kerala, there is a lack of consideration for the role of adult sons and fathers in sharing domestic responsibilities (Varghese & Ranganathan, 2021). Moreover, the current framing of “empowerment” and “development” lacks consideration for the gender gap in UCW as a barrier (Shireesha, 2021).…”

Reconceptualizing Empowerment and Autonomy: Ethnographic Narratives from a Self Help Group in South India

“…The transition to a non-patriarchal regime is often a matter of debate in the context of SHGs like Kudumbashree. Such transition is often depicted as either demanding a serious rupture with the current gender regimes leading to a more liberatory discourse of paid labour and mobility for women (15) or as using "non-confrontational" means to negotiate between domestic unpaid work and paid labour (16). Nevertheless, the everydayness of a Kudumbashree activist carries implications that are much more volatile in nature even while explicitly assuming a more settled and amicable approach.…”