Ungendering domestic work

Ungendering domestic work

Santosh Kumar is 22 years old. He lives with his parents and two younger siblings, a younger brother and a sister in Kothigaon village, Gariyaband district of Chhattisgarh. Santosh’s parents are farmers and Santosh works as a mason to support his family. He joined the Kothigaon youth group in 2017 of Lok Astha Sewa Sansthan, Oxfam India Partner and regularly attends the meetings. 

Since joining the youth group Santosh narrates the changes that he is experiencing in his life “I was least bothered about how my mother was managing the farm work and the household chores. Now, I understand how difficult it has been for her to manage things without any support. Now I wash the clothes of the family members and also clean the house.” Not only this, Santosh prepares his sister and brother and sends them to school.

Sustaining the changes were not easy for Santosh, as his friends and neighbours ridiculed him. But determined Santosh questioned his friends and neighbours – “If I do not do my household chore of my family, will you do it for us?”  Santosh recounts, “It took some time for my friends and neighbours to accept the reform in me, but now they no longer ridicule me. More than anything else, my family and especially my mother is the happiest person to see a changed Santosh.”

Santosh also encouraged his friends to join the group and today about 8 of his friends who joined the group have started their journey of bringing in positive social norms.


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