Battling Social Inequality: Learning from the Lockdown

Creativity and Design Thinking in Social Policy

The New Normal

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that is spreading across the world at an alarming rate, governments have resorted to nation-wide lockdowns to prevent the transmission of this disease. In countries like India, where families have been under lockdown for over a month, workplaces have adapted and improvised — shifting to conference calls and virtual meetings to meet work targets, allowing employees to work remotely.

While work-from-home becomes the new normal (at least temporarily), it poses new challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, with work often spilling over disrupting existing routines.

Along with this, the absence of household help has led to an increase in household chores. This has encouraged all family members to contribute to the upkeep of the house. Hence, the new normal has also become ‘work for home’ : an increasingly equitable distribution of household work between all members of the family.

Why does this deserve attention?

This topic deserves attention because with the Indian population growing at an exponential rate, there has been a considerable growth in the informal economy. This includes odd jobs, such as house help and drivers that work for middle/upper class families. Research shows that there income inequality that has been on the rise, as upper class households spend their time and energy in reproducing capital while employing lower classes to look after the basic upkeep of their households. This does not provide significant growth opportunities to disadvantaged groups, thus increasing social disparity. Hence, with ‘work-for-home’, labour previously employed as household help can now look to build and accumulate capital by training themselves/ honing their skills/ starting up ventures etc. that contribute productively to the economy while also uplifting their socio-economic status.

This is especially relevant in the post-COVID 19 economy, where manufacturing units/businesses will require greater inputs to help the economy recover. The redirection of trained/skilled labour would allow lower classes to become part of the formal economy, thus also giving them access to them to employee protections and benefits from the government.

Untapped resources = new opportunities. Instead of employing house help, their time and skill can be used in activities that promote their (and the nation’s) socio-economic development.

Field Analysis

For the purposes of this research, I conducted interviews with 10 women on the sustainability of the current division of household work amongst all members of the family. The interviewees consisted of stay-at-home mothers, part-time and full-time working women with children ranging from the age groups of 3 to 22 years. All of them had some form of house help to assist with chores like cooking, cleaning etc, who were currently on paid leave, during the lockdown.

7 out of 10 women said that their household work has shifted from planning and supervising the work of the house help, to more hands-on work suhch as cooking, mopping, sweeping and cleaning the house. For working women, work-from-home has made work-life balance harder as there are no clear distinctions between office hours and personal time.

It was interesting to see that in households where both the man and the woman were working, there wasn’t much of a change in the distribution of housework. While the absence of house help did increase the workload for both individuals (especially with children being introduced to chores), due a balanced distribution of work, very few complained about being overworked/stressed. This is especially true of younger couples, which paints a promising picture of social and cultural change that challenges traditional gender stereotypes.

2 of the 10 women are currently residing in the USA and the UK, employed full-time. Both claimed that there was no change in the distribution of household work post the lockdown. Despite the shift to work-from-home, a previously well established division of errands amongst the family meant no real increase in household chores. They attributed this to the absence of regular/full-time house help (a concept less popular in western culture), which meant all members of the family (including children) were responsible for cleaning up after themselves and carrying out household chores as part of their daily routine.

Creative Tools

Hence arises the need to define the problem statement in the Indian context:

Middle and Upper class families need a way to become self-reliant/independent in running their households in a way that allows lower class labourers/employees/household help to be relieved of their work in their homes, enabling them to realise their potential in other forms of productive activity.

In this case, I propose the introduction of social policies to encourage middle and upper class households to become more independent/self-reliant. These policies shall result in the disruption of the informal market for household help, in the process, also creating opportunities for innovation in technology to make housework easier and more efficient.

It is important to note, however, that policy implementation is what would cause the disruption here (and not the mere availability of high tech household gadgets/machines). This is because in the current market, widely and cheaply available labour is the biggest competition to technology. A change in social policy — either towards the formalisation of the informal market of household help (regulating hours etc./ diverting their time and skill towards other productive jobs) and/or incentivising an equitable distribution of household work would limit the need for informal help. The latter (specifically) would create a market for new innovations that would make household chores faster and more efficient.

This would create a whole new market for cheap and efficient grassroot innovation. Jugaad innovation is the art of “overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources.” These are essentially frugal, low budget innovations, that ease the burden of everyday activities in a creative fashion — often using only spare materials lying around the house or creative thinking finding alternative ways to make everyday activities more efficient. While there is existing machinery available (especially in western countries) to serve the purpose of household efficiency, these tend to be expensive, complex machines that are not easily affordable by the average Indian household. Examples of the same are dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and cooking aids like Rotimatics*, mixers and grinders.

During the interviews, I came across a few interesting ways in which some families had, within the matter of a few days, managed to find creative ways to make their everyday lives easier. One example was using tin lids of cylindrical containers as a quick and easy way to make multiple rotis at once. Frugal low budget innovations are especially likely to take place in low income households with limited resources. These ideas could be developed, modelled and monetized as small scale businesses to generate an income for these families.

Policy solutions

1) Promoting work-life balance: Especially in countries like India, there is no concept of a work-life balance. This means, working professionals often come home exhausted and overworked, unable to dedicate their time and energy to other activities. Pushing for a shorter work day, with more stringent guidelines on over-time/work culture, there is a high possibility of seeing an increased participation of working professionals at home. Stipulated work-from-home days (in controlled and limited ways) may be used to allow professionals to maintain their work-life balance better.

2) Incentivising formal work: This is especially important for women that succumb to taking on the role of a ‘homemaker’, thus demarcating house work to be an individual task. Encouraging women to take up formal work would also help them become financially independent. Having multiple earning members in the family would not only increase the general standard of living, but also maintain a balance of power in the house.

3) Incentivising self-sustainable households: Encouraging members of the household to lend a hand at home. This may be done through means such as, selective tax incentives (especially for working women) and a change in classroom curriculums to inculcate these habits in children. Also promoting innovative technology to ease housework (eg. cleaning devices/cooking devices).

4) Training and redirecting lower class labour : Lower class labour must be trained to enter the formal workforce (for eg. in technical skills or artistic skills dependent on their interest and talents). There must also be ways to encourage creativity and local entrepreneurship (eg. scaling up Jugaad innovations etc.) to allow them to fight exploitation and class barriers.

Impact of these policies:

These policies represent lateral thinking in terms of the multi-faceted impact it would have in breaking gender stereotypes and promoting equality. Research shows that in households with an inequitable distribution of chores, women take on the majority of the burden of running the house. Gender stereotypes tend to be much more pronounced in such settings, often leading to greater socio-economic problems such as the social and financial emancipation of women in the society.

Housewives tend to be overworked and underappreciated for their contribution to the society as it is not met with a financial reward/stimulus such as that in the formal workplace. Thus, housework is often seen as a mundane/lowly task, not taken on by the man of the house (who takes on the role of being the sole breadwinner). Women are also often not awarded with the social status/standing and respect in the society, akin to a working man who earns. By incentivising women to work as well as promoting a healthy work-life balance (especially for men), such a policy could reform the prevalent mindset on housework and make it a basic requirement to be fulfilled by both genders equally.

Empathising with stakeholders: the Human-Centric Design Thinking approach

This research is primarily centered around the concept of empathy mapping — remaining attentive to the needs of the people to try and better understand the ways in which policy may be altered to further their interests. At every stage, there was cross questioning and interviewee insight in identifying the pain points and drawing up a rough policy plan to tackle these issues.

Majority feedback from the interviewees showed a positive response towards replacing the household help with the distribution of household work amongst the family. The reason behind this was that it encourages good habits of organisation, independence and cleanliness in children while also promoting equal partnership/involvement within the family. The actual process of refining and implementing policy level changes, however, would require design thinking and thorough research in this field.

Initially, these changes may cause disruption and disturbance to the family setting (as any change does). It may be difficult for families with younger children to do away with house help, especially if both parents are working. For such cases, househelp must be formalised (i.e institutionalised in a manner such that the interests of lower class employees are also protected — eg. paid leaves, fixed hours etc.)

Secondly, it may not be feasible to adapt all western ideas to combat ‘Indian’ problems. This is specifically true in the case of advanced sophisticated machinery like dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. These are expensive, heavy water/electricity consuming devices that are not readily available in the market. New innovations in the field would also take a while to come around. While these are valid arguments, they can be easily overcome through creative ways of task allocation (for eg. each person having their own set of labelled dishes that they must use and clean).

Innovation by imitation is an especially relevant creative tool in this context. Theoretically, it means taking an idea or a technique from one field/context and applying it to a different context. It is a widely prevalent practice, adopted by popular brands such as Ford’s automobile assembly line (initially taken from the Chicago meat processing business). This is a classic example of the Medici Effect where an idea from one field/industry (in this case, the food industry) revolutionises an entirely different field (labour specialisation). In this case, however, the idea is taken from a different geographical/cultural context. I.e imitating existing practices and innovations in western countries, to be used in the Indian context. Innovators may also want to adapt and improvise these ideas as per the requirement of the situation to make for a more specific solution. It provides a solid starting point for future innovation in the field by facilitating the exchange of knowledge and ideas as well as providing a fresh perspective on the issue.

Innovation is the ability to be forward-looking, adapt and improvise with time; it’s been driving society forward since the beginning of time and shall continue to do so; socially, economically and politically.

*Rotimatic is a brand that has created a machine to make chapatis. It requires inputs of water, flour and oil and it kneads the dough, rolls it out and cooks the chapatis, serving them hot and ready to eat.

Bibliography

Belludi, Nagesh. “Creativity by Imitation: How to Steal Others’ Ideas and Innovate.” Right Attitudes, 23 Oct. 2018, www.rightattitudes.com/2018/10/22/innovation-by-imitation/.

Gonsher, Ian. Mills-Scofield, Debs. ‘Great Innovators Think Laterally’, Harvard Business Review.

Christensen, M, Clayton. Raynor, E, Michael. McDonald, Rory. ‘What is Disruptive Innovation?’, Harvard Business Review.

Radjou, Navi, et al. “Use Jugaad to Innovate Faster, Cheaper, Better.” Harvard Business Review, 23 July 2014, hbr.org/2011/12/think-like-an-indian-entrepren.