Role of Women in Rural Development

Author(s): A. Sudershan Reddy and H. Girija Rani

Source: Social Scientist , Jun., 1982, Vol. 10, No. 6 (Jun., 1982), pp. 51-57
Published by: Social Scientist

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3517067

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NOTE

Role of Women in Rural Development

THE subject of "Women and Development" has invited a good

deal of attention, especially in the case of rural women, in recent years,
and rightly so. Women constitute about 50 per cent of the world's
population and one-third of its total labour force. The overwhel-
ming majority of women workers in rural areas is afflicted by
problems of poverty, unemployment and underemployment. Histori-
cally, the sustained labour of women has been the pivot of the village
economic system. Rural women share abundant responsibilities and
perform a wide spectrum of duties in running the family, maintaining
the household, attending to farm operations, tending domestic animals
and engaging in rural artisan work and handicrafts. But female
labour engaged in such activities is usually not measured in economic
terms. An implicit assumption is made that the woman is basically
a mother and housewife; any productive work she carries out is
considered socially secondary, an extension of her primary function,
and thus it has tended to remain unnoticed, more so in the case of
rural women. As for the productive activities, those women who are
from lower classes have always participated in them, but they suffered
as members of the working class on account of two forms of exploi-
tation-one with regard to wage differentials and the second with
respect to their position as the main component of the reserve army
of labour.
In the analysis of poverty of underdeveloped nations and the
possibilities of economic development, the contribution of male labour
is given a prominent place, but the contribution of women and the
possibilities of mobilising their unutilised labour for economic deve-
lopment are generally overlooked. As a result, while economists have
been concerned with male unemployment and while some attention is
paid in the development programmes to the use of those production
methods which do not drive men out of employment, displacement of
women workers in the process of economic development is not consi-
dered to be of much consequence. To see the role of women in its

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52 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

proper perspective, the part played by women in rural socie

be considered in terms of its economic value rather than as a mere
social contribution. There is a need for proper assessment of th
participation of rural women in income generating activities and thei
contribution to economic development.
In our country the population of women is about 49 per cent of
the total but their labour participation rate is much lower compar
to many other countries; indeed it is as low as 25 per cent. Of all
working women in our rural areas 50 per cent are agricultural
labourers, while 30 per cent are from poor peasant cultivator families.
According to one estimate (1977-78), in the age group of 15-59 the
proportion of rural women in the total labour force was 39 per cent.
In the same age group, nearly 60 per cent of women in rural areas were
gainfully employed. One of the features of the Indian labour force,
as several studies have pointed out, is the downward trend in female
work participation. This paper seeks to study the mode of utilisation
of labour sex-wise and activity-wise among different categories of
families, viz., agricultural families, artisan families and agricultural
labour families to investigate the role of female labour.

Methodology
The study was carried out in one of the villages of Warangal, a
backward district in Andhra Pradesh. The village has 2100 house-
holds of which 75 per cent are cultivators, 5 per cent artisans and
professionals, and 20 per cent landless labourers. Among cultivator
households 56 per cent are 'large' cultivators with landholding
above five acres, and the remaining are 'small' cultivators with hol-
dings less than five acres. All the households in the village were clas-
sified into three groups: a) agricultural, b) professional and artisan
and c) agricultural labour. An equal sample of 20 from each of the
categories was selected on the basis of stratified random sampling.
Agricultural households were further classified into 'small' with less
than five acres and 'large' with more than five acres. An equal sample
of 10 from each group was selected. The artisan families in the sam-
ple mainly comprise weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters and petty tra-
ding people.
The data were collected through a pre-structured questionnaire
and schedules. The data pertain to the agricultural year 1980-81.
Work hours for various activities were converted into standard work
days of eight hours,
Women who are usually busy with domestic work provide subsis-
tence labour in work like looking after dairy, poultry or orchard. In a
developing country like ours with a considerable share of non-mone-
tary transactions in rural areas, these workers should be identified as
active and part of the labour force. Thus the self-employed in unpaid
but income-supplementing activities in the nature of crop-husbandry,

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 ROLE OF WOMEN IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT 53

dairy, poultry and artisan work are considered to be engaged in ga

economic activities. Thus economic activities in this study i
crop husbandry, dairy, poultry, artisan work and hired-out l

Results and Discussion

Table I indicates that, taking economic and domestic activities
together, women work for a larger number of days and for longer hour
in a day. The average standardised work days for men and women are
210.8 and 417.8 respectively. The average working hours per un-
standardised day for men and women are 4.6 and 9.1 respectively.
Thus women's work hours per day are almost double that of men. The
work days in economic activities (total work days minus work days fo
domestic purposes) for men and women are 203.5 and 212.7 respec
tively. It clearly shows that the participation rate measured in th
number of work days is slightly higher among women as compared to
men.This is a clear indication that women who are basically house-
wives are also engaged in economically productive work in addition to
their domestic work. All the men in the sample agreed that thei
wives were working for longer hours and also that their wives' work
was more arduous.
However, some variations exist in the case of total work days of
men and women in the three categories of households. The total work
days of men in agricultural, artisan and agricultural labour families
are 177.1, 315.7 and 139.8 respectively. The corresponding work days
for women are 456.9, 428.5 and 368.4 respectively. Men in the second
category (artisans) are working for more days, followed by agricultural
and agricultural labour families. The smaller number of work days of
men in the first and third categories can be attributed to some extent
to the partial drought during the year under reference. Among agri-
cultural families, small farmers work for a larger number of days as
compared to large farmers. Among women, the first category had the
highest number of work days followed by artisan and agricultural
labour families. As far as the economic activities are concerned,
women in the first category had the highest number of work days in
economic activities, followed by those in the agricultural labour cate-
gory and then those in the artisan category. It can be observed from
the table that the agricultural labourers, both men and women, are
getting work for fewer number of days as compared to the other two
categories, and this clearly shows the extent of under-utilisation of
labour among agricultural labourers.
If we express the labour contribution in terms of money rates
obtained at the prevailing wage rates the contribution of men is
Rs. 1015.50 per year and that of women is only Rs. 425.40. This low
level of contribution of women in terms of money can be explained by
the difference in wage rates-Rs. 5.00 per day for men and Rs. 2.00 for
women.

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 TABLE I
THE PATTERN OF WORK PARTICIPATION AMONG DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF RUR
ACTIVITY (IN STANDARD WORK DAYS PER

MEN WO

Si. Activity Agricultural Households Agricultur

No. u g Agril. All
1 1 1 Artisan Labour House- Small Larg
c~:~ O ba o --'" Artisan Labour House-
E C^ C" <g " holdsLa
1VI -2 36A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1 Crop husbandary 226.6 121.6 174.1 20.5 15.0 69.8 93.5

(97.4) (100) (98.3) (6.5) (10.1) (34.4) (20.0)
2 Dairy 100.5
(21.8)
3 Poultry 9.1
(1.9
4 Professional/Artisan ... ... ... 292.8 ... 97.6
... ... ... (92.7) ... (45.1)
5 Hiring out labour ... ... ... 108.3 36.1 39.1
(78.8) (17.1) (8.1)
Sub-total work days 226.6 121.6 174.1 293.3 123.3 203.5 242.2 2
(97.6) (100) (98.3) (92.2) (88.9) (96.6) (51.8) (
6 Domestic work 6 ... 3 2.4 16.5 7.3 218.9 1
(2.6) ... (1.7) (0.8) (11.1) 3.4) (48.2)
Total work days 232.6 121.6 177.1 315.7 139.8 210.8 461.1 4
(100) (100) (100) (100) (100) (100) (100)

NOTE: 1) 'Standard work day' means a day of eight hours of work.

2) Figures in parenthesis indicate percentage.
3) Crop husbandry includes rearing of milch cattle also.

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 ROLE OF WOMEN IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT 55

The analysis of the composition of work of men and women

interesting. Among agricultural families men work for 98.3 per
of their work days in crop husbandry and rearing of milch
Among artisans 92.7 per cent of work days is engaged in artisan
professional work and is followed by 6.5 per cent in crop husband
0.8 per cent in domestic work. Among agricultural labour fam
hired-out labour constitutes 78.8 per cent of total labour days fo
by 11.1 per cent in domestic work and 10.1 per cent in crop husba
For men of all categories of families, professional and artisan
constitutes the largest share (45.1 per cent) and is followed by
husbandry (34.4 per cent), hiring out labour (17.1 percent) and do
tic work (3.4 per cent).
The findings of the present study conforms to the gen
observation that among women, domestic work constitutes the m
share of total work days (49.2 per cent). This is followed by
out labour (15.6 per cent), dairy (12.9 per cent), crop husbandry
per cent) and artisan work (10.2 per cent). However, it is foun
considerable variations exist in the composition of work days am
the three categories of families. Among agricultural families
stic work constitutes 45 per cent, dairy 26.9 per cent, crop husb
21.9 per cent and hired-out labour 11.2 per cent. In the case of ar
families, domestic work constitutes 44.7 per cent and is follow
artisan work 29.8 per cent, hired-out labour 10.9 per cent, da
per cent and crop husbandry 4.2 per cent. A marked differe
observed in the case of agricultural labour families where do
work, hired-out labour and crop husbandry constitute 59.2, 35.8 a
per cent respectively. The higher percentage of domestic work a
agricultural labour families results from two facts: (i) economic
vities like hired-out labour and crop husbandry absorb fewer nu
of days and (ii) dairy farming is completely absent. The greater w
of domestic work, in other words, is a reflection of the limited o
tunities available outside.
Based on the sample survey an estimate is made for the village
is order to quantify the extent of work participation of men and
women on the basis of weightages assigned for the three categories of
families (16, 1 and 4, based on the village level classification of
families into these three categories). Table II shows the estimate for
men and women. On an average, men worked for 176.5 days while
women worked for 437.8 days. Work days in economic activities for
men and women are 171 and 230 respectively. This clearly indicates
that women are a significant factor as productive workers among the
rural poor. Among men, 77.2 per cent of work days relates to crop
husbandry, 11.2 per cent to hired-out labour, 82.2 per cent artisan and
professional work and 3.0 per cent to domestic work. On the other
hand, among women, domestic work constitutes 47.4 per cent and is
followed by dairy (21.4 per cent), crop husbandry (18.8 per cent) and

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56 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

artisan and professional work (1.0 per cent). Thus among m

women, crop husbandry, dairy and hired-out labour constitut
types of work where most of rural labour is employed.

TABLE II

"VILLAGE LEVEL ESTIMATE OF WORK PARTICIPATION" BASED ON WEIGHTED*

AVERAGE FOR ALL HOUSEHOLDS IN THE VILLAGE IN STANDARD WORKDAYS.

SI. No. Activity Men Women

1 2 3 4

1 Crop husbandry 136.4 80.3

(77.2) (18.8)
2 Dairy ... 95.7
(21.4)
3 Poultry ... 7.1
(1.6)
4 Professional/Artisan 14.0 5.1
(8.2) (1.0)
5 Hiring out labour 20.6 42.2
(ll5) (9.8)
Sub-total work days 171.0 230.4
(97.0) (52.6)
6 Domestic work 5.5 207.4
(3.0) (47.4)
Total work days 176.5 437.8
(100) (100)

NOTE: * 1) Weightages for agricultural families 16

Artisan families 1

Agricultural labour families 4

Tatal 21

2) Figures in parenthesis indicate percentages to total.

Summary and Conclusion

The above analysis clearly indicates that rural women are
significant as productive workers. They are engaged for a larger
number of standardised work days in a year owing to longer hours of
work in a day in all activities compared to their men counterparts.
The role and work participation of women measured in work days in
economic activities proper, such as crop husbandry, dairy and hired-
out labour and artisan work, is also slightly higher compared to men.
However, their contribution in money terms, when labour in economic
activities is valued at prevailing market rates, seems to be moderate
(50 per cent of men's contribution). The heavy work and low financial
returns clearly reflect the travails of rural women. The female parti-
cipation rate is higher among cultivator families compared to artisan
and agricultural labour families. In the first category, dairy and crop

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 ROLE OF WOMEN IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT 57

husbandry provide the more important source of employment

women while crop husbandry provides demand for hired labour fro
the agricultural labour families and has a greater potential for
increasing the role and participation of women in agriculture.

A. SUDERSHAN REDDY*
H. GIRIJA RANI**

*Lecturer in economics, C.K.M. Arts & Science College, Warangal

* *Lecturer in economics, Andhra Balika Degree College, Warangal

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