ROLE Of Work in our life….

Close your eyes for a moment . What did you see?– Certainly a busy moment where everyone is busy with his work. Some one is getting ready for his  office and some one just had opened his shop.

Work is related with us reflecting our individualisation, a belonging into the societal dimensions & interactions & way of earning our livelihood.

Yesterday, while going through the “Quora”my attention seemed to be stuck to one question related to the topic where one person requested for its answer.

Of course , I will try to discuss this below with the aim of learning new things through your participation and comments  .

” Work” cane be perceived from different perspectives & it is deep rooted in our culture and process of mechanism for the social interaction from long days ago.

From the Religious Perspective:–

 

• In Hindu religion— Among the 4 goals(Dharma, Artha, kama & Moksha)– 2nd one is “Artha” which describes the importance of making a move towards livelihood & economic security for raising family.
• Christian theology believes that work is part of GOD’s nature & his instruction to work(good work) hard with motivation.
• Among the 8th fold paths of BUDDHISM, 5th fold describes about livelihood & also encouraged to access right livelihood avoiding wrong ones.
•  In Islam religion,emphasise is being given on livelihood for self independence.

In religion, our motto of work had been described as the purpose of salvation & voluntary submission to  “GOD” ultimately.

From the Social Hierarchy Perspective  :-

 

Often we are being valued on the basis of our involvement on the nature of work. Putting value after classification & placement in the social hierarchy is done as per parameter. This further acts as  social determinant in creating class/caste/creed/social sanctions/folkways etc.

From the Gender Perspective:-

“Work”enhances process of individualisation, a separate entity (apart from biological) as male or female. How?…..

• There exists stereotype(generalised views) concept that Man should be involved in earning of livelihood & woman in looking after household works.
• Among the spouse, vice versa cant be applied. In that case Male will be thrown into harsh  unhealthy criticism.                                                                                                                   Whatever educated we might be , we have to follow this stereotype ideology.

We can have more clear idea in the modern society through  advertisement where a female determines the quality of utensils/spices(of course neglecting some exceptional case) by her feminine power . can you imagine a society where “vice versa” can be applied?  Can in our society, an employed woman ever think of marrying a unemployed “Male”? Honestly “No-No” would be uttered within .  In this respect, we perhaps forget the demands of equal status for Man & Woman.

I am neither supporting a male to be unemployed nor encouraging him to live in the livelihood of his partner. I am highlighting the work concept from gender perspective.

Mass law & our work  :-

Abraham Mass law, an American Psychologist explains human needs & motivational behaviour through his 5 tier pyramid model. It reflects meeting our deficiency needs as motivational factor to fulfil those needs.

In the Pyramid–  Physiological needs (Food, Shelter, Water) being placed at the bottom  and then going upwards as  Safety needs, belonging & Love needs(friends & relationship)  , Esteem needs(Prestige, Respect, positive self image, Admiration etc) and at the peak of pyramid is — Self actualisation(achieving full functioning,full potential & fulfilling meaning of life).     After completion of one step we become motivated to work for the fulfilment of next one.

Here I am not going in details of Mass Law. In Mass law Physiological needs & safety needs are within basic needs . After completion, we move for next step of  Belonging & Esteem needs are within psychological needs .  In the 3rd level, we want friendship, intimacy, belonging to a group etc. In esteem needs(4th level of the needs hierarchy) , people want to earn status, prestige, name & fame etc.

After attaining all levels, we make our move towards self actualisation where we can understand our ideal self and a perception of the world around him.

Mass law needs hierarchy help us to understand our action & motto of our work in our life.

Calling for a Broad Purpose:-

In this materialist world, most of us are involved in the rat race for the livelihood for the sake of us & our family. We try to save for our next generations & they later in their life follow the same cycle.  When we are busy to live for us, there are some great persons who dedicate their life for the broader societal members.

One of e.g I can mention here as “BABA AMTE“.   Mr. Murlidhar Devidas Amte(BA, LLB), an Indian social worker & social activist had been awarded with “Gandhi Peace Prize” in (1999).

This award of worth value ONE CRORE rupees($10 million) was being given for his contribution in rehabilitation programme for the person suffering from leprosy.

In his community rehabilitation centre(Anandwan Ashram,in chandrapur district of the state of Maharastra,India), people (Leprosy patient & needy & disabled people from the downtrodden society ),due to his expanded livelihood activities are now self independent in fulfilling their basic needs.

In this respect, I could remember the conversation with one of my professor in the deptt of Social work. I simply wanted to know from my Sir –the reason behind not using that much of huge amount of money for the sake of himself.

Sir explained in a nice way about our limited nature/ expectation & our habit  in following self centred attitude that  ends when we face any adverse situation in our life. Hardly some  relatives & a few number of friends we might have for helping us. But in case of those great people, these number might be 100 or thousand or even more. In that sense that much amount is like  a small amount.

These people render their service to the society honestly and in turn societal members are also ready to look  after them in all possible ways. Its a relation of  pure love & belongings or bond between each others & of course it is unconditional & spontaneous.

 

We want to earn for various reasons. But in no way role of work should be allowed to be a determinant or base for the classification of “Gender factor “. It should not be at the cost of others suffering.

I was just thinking about pandemic situation . If in these days we, instead of thinking of our  own materialistic world extend our helping hands &  more of Giant organisations contributes through their CSR policy then we would have a society –free from unemployment,hunger, anxiety & frustration.

DCOVID 19 taught us to think as “WE” instead of “I” concept and we must bring the  change otherwise we would remain as alone in this broad society…… 

Dear friends & fellow bloggers—Kindly feel free to provide your  feedback regarding role of work in our life — from your perception. I welcome you for the            purpose..

 

Ref:—-

1. Simply psychology.org
2. Study.com
3. huffpost.com
4. wikipedia