What is Homescience? It is a multifaceted discipline
comprising human development, Foods, Nutrition and Dietetics, Textiles and
Clothing, Family Resource Management and Extension Education as well as
subjects in related areas like physiology, biochemistry, sociology and others -
all of which contribute towards enhancing the quality of life by optimizing the
use of basic resources namely food, clothing and shelter. Though homemaking may
be an ancient skill that may be imbibed by word of mouth, the increasing
pressures of industrialization, urbanization and globalisation have disrupted
the social fabric of family life thus affecting experiential learning of
homemaking as in the past. With the breakup of the joint family system and
dispersal of nuclear families, the traditional family life is slowly
disappearing as is familial interactions with consequent learning experiences. The discipline of Homescience therefore
assumes greater importance during the 21st century since it helps
individuals and families to develop a sound philosophy with sustaining values.
Unfortunately in the public mind the stigma of
“cooking and stitching” could not be removed and that is partly responsible for
the decreasing admission into the Homescience faculty. It is this stigma, which
makes the society, look at it with suspicion as a bid to use domesticity as a
shackle on women’s opportunities. Many feminists denigrated this course and
targeted it as an attempt to keep the women in the kitchen. Although dissenters
have described Homescience as a “female ghetto”, the concerns of the
homescientists were never confined to the home. They were always in the
forefront of any community development program like the Tamilnadu Noon Meal
Program, AP DWCRA movement and others.
At present there is a
great and increasing need for Home scientists not only in the employment market
but also in the area of self-employment since the young professionals from
other fields are increasingly drawn into career concerns with little time for
homemaking and family related activities.
Some of the areas in which home scientists can help by providing service
and support include –
Ø
Development of new strategies to face the
challenges of homemaking in the 21st century.
Ø
Extension of these strategies to women and men
struggling between the pressures of career and home in order to reduce their
stress.
Ø
Care of the daily routine of running a home
through agencies providing housekeeping assistance
Ø
Care of children either through counseling,
setting up and running care centers for children of different age groups
Ø
Care of old, sick and other vulnerable groups
Ø
Dietary counseling and management of nutrition
requirements of healthy and unwell people.
Ø
Guide educational and social development of
children and others in the family.
Intervention in all the areas mentioned above and more can
easily be accomplished by the Homescience graduates can step in and provide
goods and services while in the process providing employment to others.
Strategies
for Popularizing Home science:
Ø
Increase
awareness about the course among the public
Ø
Offer the course
in modules as Nutrition, Textile Designing and so on.
Ø
Provide
expertise for starting entrepreneurial ventures.
Family is the unit of a
society and if it is neglected in the rat race for materialism society will be
decimated. It is only the faculty of Homescience, which can protect and
preserve the harmony and happiness of the family.
