Muramba is a marmalade-consistency Indian sweet made typically with mango. As a child, muramba with chapatti was one of my favourite foods.
Muramba is the title of a Marathi-language television soap opera. Similar to other TV series, the storyline typically revolves around Indian family members at odds with each other, with a close relative trying to sabotage the happiness of others and, well, even trying to kill them!
I sometimes watch the show on and off in a fast-forward mode via an app. A few days back, a line by the family's male patriarch (the father) to his son, Akshay, caught my attention.
In the scene, the father questions his son's priorities, asking whether he would go for a business meeting and get the order or attend to Artha – the infant daughter of Akshay's brother, whom he and his wife care for. The wife is unwell, and Artha's pedestrian visit is due.
This scene highlighted the gendered division of labour which persists in many Indian families – the man should earn, and the wife should look after the household and care work. The patriarch's mentality is rooted in the belief that household responsibilities and childcare are the domain of women and earning is for men.
Akshay challenges his father's outdated notions. The son's hands-on approach to domestic tasks and childcare sends a powerful message that caregiving and domestic tasks are not defined by gender but rather by the shared commitment to creating a nurturing and supportive environment for the family.
Television series could be a powerful intervention to change culture and social norms. But who is the audience? It is primarily women!
Economics teaches us that specialisation helps, even at the household level. But these decisions should be made jointly and not forcefully. Some women do not want to take up a job. That's perfectly fine, but that should be by choice, not compulsion.
Is the same choice available to men in our society? Does society treat such men respectfully? Men also suffer due to social norms.
Today, many men share household and childcare responsibilities. On average, however, marriage does not seem to make much of a difference to men's daily time use pattern, but it does for women, and the change is significant.
Using the 2019 data, we find that a single young employed man (20-29 years) spends around 25 minutes in domestic work while a married young man spends around 47 minutes.
Among employed young women, single women spend 1.5 hours daily on household work while their married counterparts spend around 5 and 20 minutes daily on household and care work.
Read more about time use of young Indian men and women in our these articles -
Now, please don't ask me why I watch soap operas!
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