The Women & Child Development (WCD) ministry is mulling over a plan that proposes to make it obligatory for men to give a certain percentage of their income to their wives as salary every month.

The WCD ministry is considering the proposal as a part of its socio-economic empowerment of housewives efforts.

WCD minister Krishna Tirath said that they conducted surveys and found that whenever a housewife was asked what she did, she said that she did nothing.

Tirath added that the ministry felt that a mechanism can be formulated to quantify and evaluate the value of work that housewives do for their families.

Speaking on the topic, Tirath further said, "The work that women do at home is also economic activity but it goes unaccounted. If somebody from outside does cooking or any other work, money has to be spent.”

Tirath said making it mandatory for men to give a certain percentage of their income to their wives as salary every month would give women more socially empowered identity. The minister also stressed that considering household work as an economic activity would give a true reflection of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The idea, which was originally raised some NGOs, would be discussed further in a meeting with ministers of different states on 17th and 18th of September.