Share The Load! Today! Now!

I have known families, happy families, where love and care exist. I have come across families, again, happy ones, where every member pays respect to the other. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, joint families and nuclear families, it’s always great to see the bond strengthening between all the members with the passage of time. And when we belong to a happy family like this, we feel blessed, disregarding the one small point that we have learnt to ignore all our lives – gender prejudices, which is gradually overpowering the sense and sensibilities of the future generations.

If cooking was just a woman’s job, every chef in the world would have been ladies. Talking of chefs, the first name that sprouts in every Indian’s mind is that of Sanjeev Kapoor. What if he too, like so many others, had considered cooking not to be a man’s job?

Prejudices are like dry cough. They may seem trivial at first, but once they infest your chest, imbibing deep within you, you realize the seriousness of it all. You need a doctor if you let the cough breed inside you. Who will rescue you if you are struck by this sickness of banal prejudices?

Another major role that is entrusted to the women is laundry. Keep the dirty clothes aside, the ladies of the house will wash it – that’s the general perception of most households. No one bats an eyelid, the reason being that it is considered as an undeclared rule.  Cleaning clothes and other household chores are mainly reserved for mothers, sisters and wives. No, they never complain, and it’s not that they feel bad about it, which again attributes to the fact that we have taken it all for granted since time immemorial. However, work is work, and they too feel the load of it, even though they never say anything, and always fulfil the tasks of the home with a smile.

But what if men start sharing the load? What if household chores are no longer a woman’s responsibility, but every member of the family does his and her bit? What if we learn to shed our prejudices, and stop labelling work in terms of gender?

I have seen my parents perform several household chores together, whether it is cooking, or laundry, or anything else that pertains to the well being of our family. I would say I am fortunate enough to have witnessed something like this from my childhood, instilling a belief naturally in me that the men and women of the house should equally divide the work among them. Laundry is by no means an easy job. Whether you are washing the clothes by hand, or through a washing machine, you have to invest a lot of energy and time. The post-washing activity of putting the clothes to dry is also tiring. And then, don’t forget the ironing part.

We need change, not drastic, but impactful. We, the men, have to learn to not just #ShareTheLoad, but also feel mighty proud about it. Only then can Gen Next move to a progressive level of maturity, getting rid of faulty preconceived notions and steer towards a better tomorrow. If women today are performing every task in the world, irrespective of their gender, then why are household chores still tagged to them?

It’s time to alter our thoughts. This is the time to #ShareTheLoad. Today. Now.

I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.