Homemakers are 'nation builders', SC fixes Rs 30,000 notional income

The Supreme Court recognised homemakers as 'nation builders' and fixed a notional monthly income of Rs 30,000 for calculating compensation. The court said loss of domestic care should be a distinct head of compensation in a motor accident case.

SC Fixes Notional Income for Homemakers

The Supreme Court on Thursday recognised homemakers as "nation builders" and held that the loss of domestic-care services must be treated as a distinct head of compensation, fixing a notional monthly income of Rs 30,000 for assessing such loss.

The Court was hearing a plea filed by the family of a deceased lady, seeking increased compensation for the latter's death in a motor accident.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh emphasised the economic value of unpaid household work and expressed hope that the word "homemaker" would now acquire the acronym "nation builder".

"Housewives contribute to the household. They are nation builders. They build the nation. How do you assess that contribution and monetise it? The word 'homemaker' would now acquire the acronym of 'nation builder,' the bench observed.

The Court also stated that it had issued directions and expressed hope and trust that the Chief Justices of all High Courts would monitor the issue. It further held that loss of domestic care should be recognised as an additional head of compensation, acknowledging the substantial but often unremunerated contribution of homemakers to families and society.

'Invisible Foundation of Society'

Notably, the Court also said that homemakers provide the invisible foundation on which society functions, enabling everyone from high-flying business leaders, politicians, artists and lawyers to ordinary daily wage earners to pursue their work and succeed. They are silent supporters of all daily grind workers, it added.

"These are the people responsible for laying the foundation stones on which the edifices of the high-flying business persons, successful politicians, headlining artists, sought-after lawyers, etc., on the one hand and on the other, the silent support behind the daily grind of an everyday worker who steps out of home in the hopes of making a decent living for the day in other words, they have a role either entirely invisible or just partially visible in the work of all those persons who are recognised to be contributing to the nation", the Court said.

A Two-Decade Legal Battle

The observations came while deciding an appeal filed by the legal heirs of a woman who died in a motor accident on November 25, 2001, while travelling from Sirsa to Fatehabad.

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Sirsa, awarded compensation of Rs 2.42 lakh on December 18, 2003. Dissatisfied, the family approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2004 seeking enhancement.

The appeal remained pending for nearly two decades after the case records were affected by a fire in 2011, and reconstruction proceedings continued for years. Following administrative directions issued on February 21, 2024, to deal with thousands of damaged or untraceable files, the High Court finally disposed of the appeal on December 11, 2024, enhancing the compensation to Rs 8.43 lakh with interest.

Still dissatisfied, the claimants approached the Supreme Court by way of a Special Leave Petition (SLP), which culminated in the present judgment delivered on June 11, 2026.

Redefining Value and Challenging Stereotypes

The Court devoted a substantial part of its judgment to explaining the economic, emotional and social value of unpaid domestic work, observing that conventional measures such as GDP fail to account for household labour even though it sustains the productive workforce.

Referring to international studies and India's Time Use Survey, the bench noted that women spend over seven hours a day on unpaid domestic tasks, perform nearly 2.6 times more unpaid caregiving work than men and contribute an estimated 15-17% of India's GDP through unpaid care work.

The judgment stressed that recognising homemakers is not merely an exercise in assigning monetary value to domestic labour but an effort to challenge entrenched gender stereotypes and redefine what society considers valuable.

"The attempt to ascribe value... is not simpliciter an attempt to assign monetary worth... making the endless efforts of a homemaker more recognisable and calculable, but also it is challenging and redefining what is understood as valuable", the Court said.

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