CPI (M) Binda Karat, a member of the Political Bureau. File | Photo Credit: Hindu
Binda Karat, a member of the CPI (M) Political Bureau, said that the recent remarks of free by Supreme Court Judge Justice Bra Gawai for the existence of “large -scale unemployment, uncertain nature of work and low wages” Fails to recognize the conflict.
On Friday (February 14, 2025), in an open letter to Justice Gawai, Ms. Karat urged her to reconsider her comments as they could bias social opinions against those who received social benefits from the government.
Justice Gawai on Wednesday commented on hearing petitions on the lack of night shelters for the urban homeless in the national capital. During the hearing, he asked whether the parasites carry the poor in existence for uncontrolled free, deprive them of any initiative to find work, join the mainstream, and contribute to national development.
Social compensation
Ms. Karat said that the comment did not do justice to the hardworking women of the country. Speaking specially on direct cash benefits transfer by various state governments including Ladki Bahin Yojana of Maharashtra, Ms. Karat said that women should be considered as “social compensation”, not “Largsi or Freebi” . He said that on average, Indian women spent 7.2 hours daily on unpaid domestic work. It worked for about 50 hours a week. For women working outside the house, the burden of domestic work was added in the number of hours of her daily work.
According to the SBI survey of 2023-24, if the limit of unpaid work of women is issued, then it will be an amount of Rs 22 lakh crore in a year, which is about 7 percent of the country’s GDP that year. Was estimated. “This task by women is socially unfamiliar and is recognized as ‘women do not work’. Sadly, your reported comments add this notion.”
On the issue of “free ration”, Ms. Carrat reported that India had the largest malnourished population in the world. “It is for these reasons that the concerned citizens and organizations are pressurizing for additional goods in the rationing system to ensure more nutritious diet at protein and inexpensive prices. In any case, no one can survive only on free ration, ”he said.
Published – 14 February, 2025 08:29 pm IST
