Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Report: Women form half of agriculture workforce in state -Anisha Anand

Report: Women form half of agriculture workforce in state -Anisha Anand

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Aug 5, 2014   modified Modified on Aug 5, 2014
-The Times of India


PATNA: Bihar's agriculture sector is highly feminized, with 50.1% of the total workforce engaged in farming activities being women, says a report on women in the informal economy of Bihar, which was released on Friday at Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) here. The report has been compiled by SEWA Bharat's Special Task Force.

The high rate of migration of men from Bihar over the past few decades has resulted in women coming to the front and taking charge of family as well as farm, revealed the report. Quoting a survey conducted by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, the report says that 70% of all women engaged in cultivation are from households witnessing migration. "Migration leads to additional vulnerabilities of women left behind but it was found that these women were playing new roles like going to ?mandis' to sell farm produce. In Bihar, over half the workforce in agriculture is female, supporting the thesis of ?feminization of agriculture'," said the report.

Additionally, women contribute 79.5% of the workforce engaged in animal husbandry in the state. As against the contribution of agriculture to the GDP of 12%, animal husbandry contributes 3.4%. When it comes to animal husbandry, women do all sorts of jobs right from cleaning and feeding the cattle to milking them and selling the milk in market.

In modern health services too, which comprise MBBS doctors, homeopathy and ayurveda practitioners and ASHA workers, women form 51.6% of the total workforce. In the small household industries such as ?bidi', pickles and papad making too, women work in large numbers, but, unfortunately, as per the report, they are underpaid. For instance, the fixed minimum wage for those who make ?bidi' is Rs 151 per 1,000 pieces, but they are actually paid Rs 30 to Rs 60 for this much of work.

The task force was constituted in 2010 on the occasion of World Women's Day with the encouragement of the then Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to compile a detailed report on the status of women workforce in the unorganized economy in the state.

Nitish, who was also present at the release function on Friday, congratulated the organization and said women's role in the unorganized economy has always been ignored. "Whatever they did, people called them their natural duties, but once people start analysing their duties, a change in mindset will usher in," he said. If women's contribution is added to the state's GDP, the state will be far ahead of its present position, he said.

Special Task Force chairperson Renana Jhabvala said initially the organization approached National Sample Survey for data on number of working women in Bihar. "They said only 11% of women in Bihar were working and the rest 89% did domestic work. However, we found the data unsatisfactory and ourselves did a study of 179 villages and six cities and found 1.3 crore women in the state were working and over 50% of the adult women contribute to the state's income," she said. However, despite this rosy picture, 55.3% of the women educated till Class X or Class XII are unemployed.


The Times of India, 2 August, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Patna/Report-Women-form-half-of-agriculture-workforce-in-state/articleshow/39438364.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close