The women’s movement has been a visible presence in India since the 1970s. Its most notable impact was felt in education. The emergence of women’s studies led to sustained interrogation of mainstream scholarship. Over the decades, both feminist movements and scholarship took up a range of topics: from violence to work; kinship to development; property rights to sexual harassment. Yet the subject of housework did not garner much attention, even as the close interlinkage between the public and private was both recognized and emphasised upon. 

This was quite different from the West, which saw a concerted debate on the issue. This is not to suggest that there has been no academic or political engagement on the issue in India, but it was raised only tangentially through subjects like unpaid work, women’s role in a subsistence economy, and the overlap between agricultural work and housework. Perhaps this neglect, stems from the fact that so many middle-class homes outsourced their domestic work. Perhaps it was the invisibility of the caste question till very late that was responsible. Some scholars have argued that what is peculiar to the Indian middle class, is not their economic status but the social location that enables them to outsource menial labour (Ray and Qayum 2009; Savaala 2010).[i]

If this was the story in women’s studies, sociology in the 1970s and 80s was more focused on the role conflict that middle class working women faced. Housework again remained outside its attention. 

While discussing housework and the pandemic, also read a very interesting piece by Dr. Alessandra Minello, Assistant Professor in Demography at the University of Florence,  titled The pandemic and the female academic, published in Nature.(doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01135-9) _____________________

With the Pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, the story changes. Discussions on middle-class housework are taking place.[ii] Among the many memes that have popped up during the coronavirus lockdown, several relate to the division of labour at home.[iii] I have been working on housework for my PhD in the last few years and have never seen public discussion on housework earlier.[iv] It is hasty to make comparisons with the post-war situation in America and Britain but there is a certain resonance with the point about middle-class housewives who were exposed to a ‘servant-less’ situation (Hooks 1989; Delap 2011). 

Closer home, I witnessed changes within my own household. The cleaning related tasks like jhadu (sweeping) and pocha (mopping) that I have been studying acquired a new focus right before my eyes. 
The day our help, Ripa (name changed) announced her departure, we were all seized by sheer panic. Confronted with a situation that had to be addressed, not only were duties assigned to each family member (suited to their age and gender) but streamlined to the extent that cooking and chopping became different domains, so did jhadu and pocha, which were earlier being done single-handedly. However, it was not cooking that was particularly bothersome but cleaning. 

To ease out sweeping, a ‘magic mop’ was soon purchased, which is a standing mop that comes with a bucket and a spinner attached to it. This meant squatting was no longer required and neither the need to touch or wriggle out the mop. This way, one need not touch the dirt. Though magic mop has been in the market for a few years now, it is during the lockdown when it made its way into middle-class households.[v]
Did it clean well? What is the relevance of this question? Often domestic workers are subjected to scrutiny, and there is little tolerance for water stains left by the mop (pocha), which tend to show easily on tiled floors. There was an immediate switch in standards. Despite what would be deemed ‘substandard performance’ of the magic mop in normal times, no one was complaining. It is still in use. 

What seems important is the ritual, not the outcome. This, too soon came to be questioned as hygiene norms were now being rethought. After strong disagreements among the family members, it was decided that mopping could be done on alternate days. Questions about spaces and frequency became routine discussions – ‘Why do we clean the balconies daily, they are hardly used’. More such rules were innovated such as ‘no cleaning on Sunday’, ‘exemption during periods’, which were well accommodated. The kitchen too is cleaned only once during the day. 
What do these changing standards tell about the middle class? Is cleaning merely a façade that has to be maintained? It is not that the ritual of cleaning itself has become obsolete. But what the lockdown has shown is that the norms of cleaning are not cast in stone. The ‘minimum’ standard is being actively reworked for the convenience of family members, though it may vary from household to household.[vi]

As the middle-class waits for the situation to normalize, what is the ‘normal’ being referred to? In all likelihood, social outings will be limited in the coming few months. For there is tangible fear. The many stories circulating on social media have only aggravated the palpable anxiety that has taken over everyday life. There are discussions already taking place among RWA bodies on the decision to allow domestic workers.[vii] There are several instructions already floating on Whatsapp from medical experts on how to maintain ‘distance’ from domestic workers as they provide their services. There is further deliberation if they should be ‘allowed’ to cook, as it involves more risk than cleaning. Meanwhile the fact that the lockdown has meant the loss of livelihood and poverty to the domestic workers[viii] is a story that is less told. 

In my PhD fieldwork, (most of it was done before COVID-19 struck us) I observed that most participants gave more attention to cooking rather than the cleaning chores. This differential priority[ix] between cooking and cleaning can be possibly explained by the fact the most households had outsourced cleaning. That however could be only a partial explanation. This focus on cooking has to be read in a social context where cleaning has strong caste associations. Not only is this stigma attached to labour but also those who undertake it.[x] Has the lockdown then, pushed the middle-class to shift their position on labour which cleans, which is viewed from the lens of pollution? 
Based on personal observations, cleaning work may not be considered ‘dirty’. But new ideas of prioritizing different kinds of housework are being formulated. The necessity of the labour itself is in question. Notions of ‘productivity’ are being discussed. Although, the ambit ‘unproductive’ remains vague, certainly, tasks like dusting, mopping are no longer considered ‘productive’. Every measure possible is taken to reduce the cleaning labour, either by the purchase of products like ‘magic mop’ or by lowering the standards of cleanliness. In all likelihood, once the lockdown is fully lifted, the middle class will return to its ‘normal’ standards. The ubiquitous household help should be back. 

References:

[i] Säävälä, M. (2010). Middle-class moralities: Everyday struggle over belonging and prestige in India. Orient BlackSwan. 

[ii]https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/domestic-inequality-in-sharp-focus-with-lockdown/1828840, accessed on 24th May 2020. 

[iii]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/VantageView/the-working-womans-lockdown-doing-zoom-conferences-cooking-and-cleaning-at-the-same-time/, accessed on 24th May 2020. 

[iv]https://feminisminindia.com/2020/05/08/remembering-wages-for-housework-movement-lockdown/, accessed on 24th May 2020. 

[v]https://qz.com/india/1857552/urban-india-laps-up-magic-mops-on-paytm-snapdeal-amid-lockdown/, accessed on 24th May 2020. 

[vi] Singha, L. (2019). Work, labour and cleaning: The social contexts of outsourcing housework. Policy Press. 

[vii]https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-india-should-domestic-helps-be-allowed-to-work-housing-societies-in-two-minds-2225664, accessed on 24th May 2020. 

[viii]https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-coronavirus-lockdown-in-poverty-orphaned-by-economy-women-domestic-workers-struggle-to-make-ends-meet/351121, accessed on 24th May 2020. 

[ix] Caplan, P. (2002). Food in middle-class Madras households from the 1970s to the 1990s. Asian food: The global and the local, 14, 46. 

[x] Gopal, M. (2013). Ruptures and reproduction in caste/gender/labour. Economic and Political Weekly, 91-97. 

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Aanchal Dhull is a PhD scholar in Women’s and Gender Studies jointly offered by Dr B R Ambedkar University Delhi and Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi.