Connected to devices, disconnected from children: struggles of urban, dual-earning parents in India during COVID-19

Abstract

To contain the spread of COVID-19 disease in the country, the Government of India announced a country-wide lockdown on March 25 2020 that remained enforced till 31 May 2020. This lockdown was imposed without much notice and was one of the most restrictive lockdowns imposed by any country (Daniyal, 2020). For instance, restrictions during the lockdown included a total ban on people’s movement outside the home, except for availing essential commodities or emergency medical facilities, no transportation, closure of public places and educational institutions with the latter asked to conduct online classes. Besides, all offices (public and private) except those providing essential services were ordered to switch to work-from-home mode. As the country tried to adapt to the new situation, families in India faced several challenges. In this commentary, I focus on the difficulties faced by dual-earner families in urban India. Dual-earner families are those in which both spouses are employed in full-time employment outside homes (D’Cruz & Bharat, 2001). Available data tells that 20.1% of urban households in India have dual-earning members (Shukla, 2010), and nine million urban households have family members employed in knowledge-based jobs (professional, technical, administrative, executive, or managerial work). My family is one such family. I work in academia; my husband works for a global technology company, and we have two young children. In the subsequent paragraphs using personal anecdotes as examples I reflect upon three specific challenges that affected dual-earner families during the lockdown, with implications for parent-child relationships. First, the lockdown increased work pressures for both parents. Jobs in India’s knowledge-based organizations are demanding and involve long working hours and stringent deadlines (Bansal & Agarwal, 2017). As work pressures intensified during the lockdown, parents employed in these organizations faced a hectic work schedule. For dual-earner families, this meant that both parents, working from home, had more office work than usual. For instance, as a university teacher, I had to teach classes online and redesign a qualitative study’s data collection plan because the lockdown had derailed the existing plan. My husband had to attend several lengthy online meetings a day. Office work was so