Unemployment is a situation where someone is actively looking for work but unable to find it. Despite being on every political party’s manifesto ever, it is something that’s always been a work in progress. Unemployment is growing and will soon be in double digits. But here is an industry that is over-employing and still growing.
Here’s a sneak-peek at the average yearly unemployment rate
in India over the past 10 years.
|
YEAR |
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE |
|
2014-2019 |
3.4% - 3.6% |
|
2020 |
23.5% (April) |
|
2021 |
7.33% |
|
2023 |
8.03% |
|
2024 |
7.8% |
According to most economic commentators, the unemployment
situation is worsening. But there’s one underrated industry that has had an
upward curve irrespective of the aforementioned unemployment rates, the
economic scenario and the volatile Indian market : The Indian household.
Approximately 10 million weddings take place in India annually,
recruiting 10 million new unsuspecting employees to this industry. It won’t, however,
occur to these new employees that they are new hires until after the first
night (or first day ‘on the job’).
More often, these new hires are given a notice period called
the engagement. However, no one prepares for the job description awaiting them-
the ‘daughter-in-law’- a title that fits many roles into one. Oh, did I say
that these employees are only women because only the ‘fairer sex’ is expected
to move to a different household, city, or country for a job that has no
distinct job title and perks?
The daughters-in-law are expected to take charge as soon
they finish customary rituals and ceremonies where the parents of the decorated
employee hand over their life’s treasure to the manager of the household who
vows to look after the employee but eventually forgets to as the reigns are
controlled solely by the owner of the organization (household).
The newly designated employee’s job description is rather
straight-forward — to cater to the needs of everyone including superiors and
subordinates, not to question or challenge the workings of the household, to
avoid expressing dislikes, to ignore the urge to bring any changes (generally
positive but unwelcome) and never to offer their opinion. These exist as
unwritten, nevertheless binding, contracts, although the new employees are
never told about it during their engagement period.
Their contract has no clauses for their benefits, except
that they (often, but not necessarily always) have a secure, amicable ambiance
to work, apart from free stay and complimentary food (although mostly prepared
by them).
There is no negotiation on salary, off or sick leaves. They
work for no pay and no holidays. On the other hand, they work overtime during
holidays and the festive season. Their employment contract subtly extends to
uninvited clients and unforgiving relative organizations (i.e., households).
A part of the job profile is to keep the new company (i.e., household) premises clean and hygienic, even when the organization’s members are not very clean and hygienic themselves. But that is not all: she has the additional task of taking care of the physical and mental well-being of all the members, even as she faces the danger of a personal mental and physical breakdown.
In other industries, new employees are sometimes provided
with joining perks. In the household industry, the new employee is expected to
bring in gifts- not just while joining but at subsequent regular intervals!
The expectations to change the way they dress, sit, walk,
talk, and behave (including renunciation of their dreams, ambitions and voice)
are expressed so nonchalantly that the employees now come to believe that they
lived a false life until then. The rule is to keep others above themselves at
all times, irrespective of the treatment they receive. It is also presumed that
they would successfully contribute towards growing the strength of the
household by bringing in more wealth in the form of babies, preferably boys (so
that the strength only grows).
The daughters-in-law are the first to wake up and last to
retire, the ones who cook and last ones to eat, the ones to care for everyone
and not be cared for and the ones who work selflessly never to be acknowledged.
It is an amazingly designed, fool-proof mechanism that has
been prevalent since time immemorial. The employees who challenge the system
are fired and the ones who do not, continue to be slaves of the household till
death do them apart.
Research shows that the wedding season will witness a surge
with 4.8 million marriages by the year-end of 2024 alone. While the country
sets out to celebrate the wedding season and boost the local economy, I quietly
join my hands in the quiet corner of my organization (household) and pray that
the almighty bestows the new employees to this wretched but ever-green industry
with enormous strength because, well, this is all that we can hope to
accomplish. The Hope of appreciation is the only thing that will keep them
attached to their organization (household).
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