Outsourcing is a process of shelling out some processes to
an independent entity, by doing so, the outsourcing entity will fully or
partially shun the process outsourced. The term outsourcing became popular
during the 21st century, when the developing countries did jobs at a
cheaper rate, as compared to their developed counterpart. Thus started the
culture of outsourcing the jobs, which either were not cost effective or
unproductive on balance sheet. This process is now quite popular in most of the
industries and has reaped good results.
Apparently, outsourcing has crept its way from industries to
our personal life. Though most of us would deny the fact, but most of us have
outsourced most of our daily and some important, yet apparently unproductive, tasks.
Our households are cleaned by our maids; the food is cooked by a hired cook;
the clothes are washed by the laundry guy and so on. There might be different
school of thoughts on whether it is right to outsource our personal hygiene or
not, just because, we are unable to manage our time. In most of the cultures,
food is used as means to express emotions of the family, such as, some special
food items are prepared during festivities; different dishes are cooked when
someone special visits our place; the gas stove is kept out , during the
mourning period. To our apathy, we have out sourced such an important means of
expression. In Mahabharata, Draupati, imbibed a lot of cooking skills from her
mother – in – law, Kunti, so that she may be more attractive to her husbands
than Kunti. After having outsourced our kitchen, how can we expect our
daughters to be a good cook?
Ours is such a rich culture, where the teachings are not
passed through books or manuscripts, but from generations to generations, just
by being in contact and imbibing by observation. To add an insult to our culture,
we have now outsourced our kids. With the concept of crèches gaining
popularity, most of the so called parents are outsourcing their kids to a third
person, with whom they share a symbiotic monetary relationship. How can we now
expect our kids to have our family values, when during the initial, tender
learning period of their lives, they have been in the hands of a third person,
whose only interest is to make money. What we are doing is, slowly killing our
culture and learning, that our ancestors have left for us. These learning once
lost, will be lost forever.
The main reason behind most of us outsourcing and unable to
adjust with current lifestyle is improper distribution of duties. Now, most of
the women have moved out of their defined sphere, which included, though not
limited to, cooking washing, cleaning, taking care of children and entered the
male sphere which is fetching resources for living and luxury. The male
population has forced their female counter part to push out of the female
sphere but they have not moved out of the male sphere, i.e. still in most of
the households, where the wife is working, she has to take care of household.
This is the biggest imbalance in their lives. The male population should
inspire from the female similitude and move out of their zone and should enter
the kitchen and perform other household jobs to maintain the balance.
