Recently while dealing with a case related with increasing the maintenance of a divorced woman, the Delhi High Court advised the woman to get a job and stop being a paradite on her husband's earnings. The court has used an unusual term 'parasite' to describe a woman who does not have a job. The question is whether a woman, who is a homemaker and does not have a professional career is a nobody? Are all her efforts at maintaining the house and taking care of the children and sometimes also her inlaws and extended family immaterial just because she does not gonout to earn? Many a times, a woman is forced to leave her job after marriage and after staying at home for ten or fifteen years is no longer wualified enough to enter the job market. If a woman has soent years of her life taking care of her husband and his house, doesnt she deserve to get maintenance if the martiage has had an unfortunate end. If a divorced woman is called a parasite, then even a widow can be called one anf then ultimately all homemakers will be declared parasites while their hours of unpaid labor will be ignored. In a society which still doesn't treat the women as equal to men, which still doesn't give equal pay for equal work, which still doesn't promote women, calling a woman a parasite is a slap on the face of all those who talk about gender justice.
While getting maintenance is not an absolute right of a wife and even husbands can get maintenance from their higher earning wives, it is required that the same provision is not misused and deserving women be forced on the street. When husbands are known to leave their jobs and declare bankruptcy in order to avoid giving maintenance to their estranged wives, te courts should be careful in awarding her what is due and courts should be extra careful in choosing the words they use.
While getting maintenance is not an absolute right of a wife and even husbands can get maintenance from their higher earning wives, it is required that the same provision is not misused and deserving women be forced on the street. When husbands are known to leave their jobs and declare bankruptcy in order to avoid giving maintenance to their estranged wives, te courts should be careful in awarding her what is due and courts should be extra careful in choosing the words they use.
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