Dear Amul, Thanks For The Tribute, But It's Not And Should Not Just be Women Juggling Between Office Work And Kitchen While We All Work From Home!

Amul has been coming up with stellar advertisements one after the other amid the coronavirus lockdown. As India battles the COVID-19 pandemic, Amul's online ads are a ray of hope. From motivating people to stay at home to asking them to wash their hands, Amul has been out there with its wonderful topicals. However, Amul's latest ad about women working from home is definitely not among the best. It comes across as sexism in your face. The latest Amul ad with caption "Tribute to women working from home and working for home during COVID-19 lockdown," and "Mom is where the heart is" shows a woman juggling between her laptop and cooking for her child. While the intention may not be such, it is ads like these that are problematic as they normalise "women belong in the kitchen" mentality of our society.

Apart from that, it is also a demoralising ad for men who, too, juggling between office work and kitchen and cleaning the house. Dear Amul, it's been a fight to be able to debate the norms of the society about who handles house chores - man or woman. The fight remains on with women struggling to get that balance. Ads like these may give an instant boost to the women working at home, but they also somewhere stress that it's still the women who have to work both at home as well as home, that it's the women who have to strike a balance between home and office. Amul Ad Urges Citizens to 'Stay Healthy, Not Hungry' During Coronavirus Lockdown.

Here's the Amul Topical on Women Working From Home

It's not just in these times, but even when everything is back to normal, it does not have to be the women who have to strike a balance between home and office. Thankfully, over the past few days, in my home as well as some more I know, men have been proactive in dividing the house chores equally. One persons brooms, the other washes dishes, one person cuts the vegetables, the other cooks. Hence, it's a request, dear Amul, that your next ad, must really pay tribute to every person, man or woman, juggling between chores and meetings while working from home. "All-rounder" sounds good, but we women really hope we are not expected to be that all the time. I'm your fan, Amul. Please don't disappoint!

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 10, 2020 12:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).