Hemu Rathore
Professor
Department of Family Resource Management
College of Home Science
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology
Udaipur 313001, Rajasthan, India
Suman Singh
Assistant Professor
Department of Family Resource Management
College of Home Science
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology
Udaipur 313001, Rajasthan, India
Charu Sharma
Senior Research Fellow
Department of Family Resource Management
College of Home Science
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology
Udaipur 313001, Rajasthan, India
Abstract
Rural women play a crucial role in agricultural development and allied fields, including crop production, livestock production, horticulture, post-harvest operations, fisheries, etc. Without total intellectual and physical participation of women, it is not possible to achieve the goals of rural uplift. Dairying as a profession fits very well in the framework of rural economic activity. It is compatible with inherent routine chores performed by women. Women’s involvement in dairying not only provide them employment but also bring in social change. The study was taken to assess the drudgery and role performance of women in dairying sector. A total of 120 respondents from four villages from Badgoan panchayat samiti were selected for the study. The study revealed that of the drudgery prone activities were women dominated. The study revealed that most of the work regarding feeding and watering of animals was the major responsibility of the women folk. They were responsible for the tasks like taking the animals for grazing, fodder collection, chaffing and storage of fodder etc. All the activities related to feeding and watering were done predominantly by women i.e 70% and 67% respectively.
The study revealed that 62 per cent of women involved in activities like fodder collection individually and 26% of them collected fodder with their counterpart. The time involved for majority of activities ranged from 8 to 15 man-days. All the dairying activities were moderately fatiguing to tiring the score ranged from very fatiguing to tiring. Thus, it was concluded that addressing the issue of women empowerment in context of rural development in general and agriculture & dairy production in particular is an important force that has the potentiality to bring quantum jump in rural economy of the country.
Key Word: Dairying, Drudgery, Man days, Fatigue
