House not just a women’s job: Bombay High Court

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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday batted for gender equality and asked why all household chores should only be done by women. The court said it is high time men, too, do household chores. “I fail to understand why men can’t work in the house?” asked a single-judge bench of Justice Mridula Bhatkar.

“Why are all the household chores left solely to the woman of the house?  Is it only her responsibility?” Justice Bhatkar further asked. The remarks were made while hearing a plea filed by two brothers seeking a direction to their married sister, to look after their ailing mother. The brothers, both bachelors, petitioned Justice Bhatkar’s bench seeking direction to their sister to dedicate at least an hour daily for their mother’s work. They argued that they had to leave their jobs and look after the mother.

Terming the situation as “unfortunate”, the counsel appearing for the brothers said, “A daughter is running away from her responsibility. We only want her to devote at least an hour daily to the work in our house, especially related to our mother.” Irked over this is submission, Justice Bhatkar said, “What kind of a prayer is this? Why you want your married sister to leave her family and come to work in your house?”

“What if you had no sister? Who would have done the household work then? Why can’t you do the work on your own or hire someone for the work,” Justice Bhatkar said. “Be mindful of the fact that there should be equal division of work. There must not be any kind of gender discrimination in allocation of works, too,” Justice Bhatkar observed. Justice Bhatkar further said that looking after parents is not the only duty a married daughter has, since she has to also look after her own family. Having made these observations, Justice Bhatkar refused to grant an urgent hearing to both brothers and adjourned the matter beyond Diwali vacations.