Women Workers in the Agricultural Sector

Women Workers in the Agricultural Sector

   

          Women agriculture workers encounter many difficulties because of their distressing and pitiable working conditions such as long working hours, low wages, inhuman behaviour, gender discrimination.  Review of the existing literature pertaining to women studies reveals that the research so far done regarding this problem has failed to get to the core of the problem The research work done by early studies show that they have undertaken the study only in certain areas and adjoining cities and not the remotest rural areas. The study attempts to examine the status and position of women agriculture workers (villages/rural areas) from all its dimensions.

            Even though India crossed 62 years of independence, constitutional safeguards and various developmental programmes adopted by the government, have not altered study is based on empirical investigation of East and West Godavari Districts in Andhra Pradesh which have been selected for the study. The Study on various facets of agriculture women workers who live in rural areas raises several questions for better understanding of the nature of the problems.

            Though a large number of women workers are found among the ranks of agriculture workers and their contribution to the rural economy is significant, they have part received adequate attention of the researches. It is only in recent years some researchers are drawn to this  little researched area The women workers in agriculture are employed to perform some particular agriculture operations like, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, thrashing and leveling. The agriculture work is seasonal and their earnings are meager. Though there are legislations like Minimum Wages Act 1948, The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, Maternity Benefit Act 1961, The Trade Unions Act 1926 etc. for better wages and equal remuneration, they are not effectively implemented. Discrimination is shown between men and women both in treatment as well as their remuneration Women are paid less than men counterparts taken for similar nature of work.

            The present study concentrates on the study of the women workers in agriculture and the rural development programmes. The study investigate the role of women, the migration problem, and their status in the home and society. The study looks into the different types of changes brought by the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) for raising a ray of hope and development in the life styles of women.

            The study will reflect the present position of women agriculture  workers in the East and West Godavari districts. In this context, the present study is expected to play a vital and useful role in making a diagnostic analysis of the problems faced by women agriculture workers and in offering appropriate suggestions to develop an effective system for the prosperity of women agriculture workers. The attitudes and aspirations of agriculture workers have been changing during the past three  decades  due to the influence of socio-economic and political factors. The different welfare programmes initiated exclusively for rural women, by the State Government is helping a lot in stopping migration and improving the women agriculture workers’ economic conditions. The State  Government is very keen in educating rural masse, and making them aware of the new technologies. The observations and suggestions of this study will be useful not only to the State of Andhra Pradesh, but also to other States in India. 

Scope of the Study   

            The study covered women workers in agriculture in East and West Godavari districts. Both these two district are popularly known as “Rice Bowl” of Andhra Pradesh. In these two districts, majority of agriculture workers are women workers and their working and living conditions are miserable. Therefore the study is an attempt on the working and living conditions of women workers and their status in society and home, and in addition they study covers the migratory nature of women workers.

Hypothesis    

            Some of the hypothesis relating to women workers in agriculture are;

· Conditions of women  workers in agriculture are distressing. It is believed that the working conditions of women agriculture workers are deplorable, working hours undefined, wages low and are subjected to maltreatment.

·    Low status of women workers in society leads to high exploitation in  agriculture.

·   Over dependence of women on agriculture work for livelihood leads to complexity of women problems, and

·      Improved social status and social security lead to empowerment of women in agriculture.

These have been empirically tested so that it may give some pointers to the women in this sector and establish some credence of their work in this sector.

Objectives of the Study

            The study attempts

1.      To study the socio-economic profile of women agriculture workers.

2.      To examine the nature of employment including the agricultural operations undertaken by women workers.

3.      To study the working conditions such as hours of work, earnings, rest interval, facilities at work place, fringe benefits, attitude and treatment  of farmers at work place.

4.      To evaluate the impact of legislative measures.

5.      To examine various government schemes and programmes in rural area meant  for empowering women agriculture workers.

6.      To study the role and status of women agriculture worker in the  family milieu.

7.      To study the role and participation of agricultural women workers in unions, and

8.      To make suggestions to improve the conditions of women agriculture workers. 

            The hypothesis and objectives together provide the necessary framework for the present enquiry.  

Methodology

            The enquiry has an exploratory-cum-descriptive design. While the exploratory design is in order to gain familiarity with the situation of women workers, the descriptive design is used for portraying accurately the characteristics of women workers and for determining its   association with the socio-economic factors.

            It is true that the agriculture sector is unorganized. Even then it is worth making an effort to build up the picture of women agriculture workers and their leaders through direct interview supported by information collected from secondary source. It could be observed from the above that a multi-stage sampling technique is used in the study. The region, the district, the village and the household are the stages in the process of selection of sample.

            The study is based on the number of villages, rural population and households of workers in Andhra Pradesh.

Sampling

            Since the study is about women workers, the sample of households is taken in such a way that the agricultural workers in the households are women. Thus the selection of household is based not only on the convenience of sampling technique but also on the matched sampling technique. The method of convenience sampling has been adopted  for collecting primary data. The researched selected two districts of  East and West Godavari  in Andhra Pradesh, both these districts are mostly based on paddy cultivation, majority of women workers engaged in agricultural operations of paddy cultivation. In East and West Godavari districts both dry and wet land areas are covered under survey, and the wet area has two crop pattern, kharif and rabi; dry area has only one crop pattern and in the remaining season they are cultivating commercial corps in dry land areas.

            After having selected the villages, 20 households of women workers in agriculture from each of the 35 villages have been selected on convenience-sampling basis for detailed study. 20 samples taken from each village for the research work, in addition to this seasonal migrant workers (from Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Visakhapatnam districts) working in same areas (villages). Thus, in all 700 households have been personally interviewed  with the help of a schedule specifically prepared for this purpose.

Date Collection    

            Collection of accurate, authentic and reliable information is vital to draw valid inferences and conclusions. The present study is based on both primary and secondary data. The following tools are found suitable for the present study. These are (i) Schedule for women workers, (ii) interview, (iii) observation.  

            The data for the study has been organized and presented in seven convenient and logical chapters.

Limitations of the Study

            It became a Herculean task to collect data and  elicit information mainly from illiterate and ignorant women workers. They were hesitant to give information relating to age, wages, income, debts, welfare schemes, sexual harassment etc. However, the research could slowly overcome these difficulties by convincing them and successfully complete the study covering the desired size of sample respondents. As the research work is based on the field survey made in some specific areas, generalizations must be used with caution when applied to a larger universe.

            It was a time-consuming process to collect accurate information from the respondents as the researcher had to ask questions in their colloquial language and convince them to answer objectively without any apprehensions. It was a hard task to cover intensively the agriculture areas spread over the two districts of the State of Andhra Pradesh.   

Scope for Further Research         

            There is an imperative need to take up more studies at this level to understand  the problems of women workers more vividly. Such an understanding is necessary to evolve appropriate measures to deal with their problems and to bring about overall development of agricultural women workers in general. The Second National Commission on Labour (2002) is also of the same opinion and endorse the views of Human Development Report (1990) that ‘the low value attached to women’s work requires a fundamental remedy and felt that there is a need to redesign national censuses, particularly agricultural surveys.”