ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies implemented to deal with it have had economic and societal repercussions all over the world. In India, a nationwide lockdown was initiated on 25 March 2020 which continued in a diluted form as we were conducting the interviews for the paper in July 2020. The lockdown brought activities outside the home to a standstill and people were expected to stay indoors in order to ensure social distancing and break the chain of infection. The lockdown sparked its own problems and triggered discussions on issues including economic hardship and domestic violence. The question of how domestic responsibilities are shared among adults in families has also come to the forefront of debate. As hired part-time help was discontinued under lockdown, parents who had hitherto outsourced childcare and housework were suddenly left to fend for themselves. This article attempts to explore the manner in which such unpaid domestic responsibilities, especially childcare, were shared between parents in middle-class homes. The gendered nature of this division of housework and care work, and its varied implications on the paid work and careers of mothers and fathers, is the focus of inquiry.

摘要

Covid-19大流行病以及为应对这一流行病而采取的策略已在全世界范围内引起了经济和社会影响。在印度，2020年3月25日开始在全国范围内进行封锁，在2020年7月我们进行报纸采访时，这种封锁以一种稀释的形式持续进行。封锁使住家外的活动陷入停顿，人们应有秩序地呆在室内确保与社会保持距离并打破感染链。这次封锁引发了自己的问题，并引发了对包括经济困难和家庭暴力在内的问题的讨论。关于家庭中成年人如何分担家庭责任的问题也已成为辩论的重中之重。由于锁定原因终止了聘用的兼职帮助，迄今将育儿和家务外包的父母突然留给自己养家糊口。本文试图探索在中产阶级家庭中父母之间分担这种无偿家庭责任，尤其是育儿责任的方式。调查的重点是这种家务和照料工作的性别性质，及其对有偿工作和父母职业的各种影响。