ROLE OF WOMEN IN HOUSEHOLD DECISION MAKING, DRUDGERY REDUCTION FOR FARM WOMEN, WOMEN FRIENDLY AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

2. ROLE OF WOMEN IN HOUSEHOLD DECISION
MAKING, DRUDGERY REDUCTION FOR
FARM WOMEN, WOMEN FRIENDLY
AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY
Prof. Shivaji R. Suryavanshi
Asst. Professor of Agronomy,
Dr. D.Y. Patil College of Agriculture,
Talsande.

3. • 1) Role of women in household decision
making :
The decision making status of farm
women is influenced by various factors. The
list of such factors is provided by Mc Cullough
(1990) from the survey and interviews carried
out with rural people in America, Canada &
Australia. These are

4. Factors influencing Decision Making Status of Farm Women
Self : Society :
Age Attitude Race National
Structure
Education Self / Partner Resources Social
expectations
Economics
contributions
Division of
labour
(house/farm)
Self perception
of family goals
Patriarchal
Society
Involvement in
parent’s farm
Legal
arrangements
Partner Legal structure
Interest and
aspirations
Owners /
Managers
Length of
association
Length of
association with
farms
Family Goals and
relations of
family members

5. DRUDGERY
REDUCTION
FOR FARM
WOMEN

6. DRUDGERY REDUCTION FOR FARM WOMEN
• In a 24 hrs. clock, women work 15-16 hrs. out
of that 7-8 hr. in peak and 5-6 hrs. in slack.
• The technological requirement for farm
women needed for better handling of the
farming system or farming enterprise. The
women those who are actively engaged in
field operations would intend to have
technology involving no or less drudgery.
Some of the technologies for drudgery
reduction in farming are elaborated
herewith.

8. • 1. Drudgery reduction through cropping
system : The choice of cropping system
should be such that it should be easily
managed by women farmers. She may desire
to adopt a cropping system with low risk or
demanding less labour, involving the crops of
low volume, high value but of non-perishable
nature. Moreover, she may prefer to go for all
types of crops of family requirement over
single commercial crop.

9. • 2. Drudgery reduction through choice of
varieties : The varieties of crop with better
yielding ability and market preference can be
practiced.
• Dual purpose : The women in hilly and tribal
areas spent lot of time in fodder and fuel
collection. They have to walk (1-10 km) in
forest area for collecting these items. That is
why women prefers dual purpose varieties
which could save their lot of time and
drudgery of back braking load. They carry
heavy load of fodder / fuel in hilly areas.

10. • Good threshability : The preparation of farm
produce into grains/market produce, the threshing
job is manually done where women’s participation
is quite considerable. The varieties with easy
threshing or shelling abilities will be preferred by
women.
• Easy dehusking : In most parts dehusking is done
manually by women. The dehusking process is time
consuming and require lot of energy. The choice of
varieties for easy in dehusking is not only desired for
reducing drudgery but also for improving the quality
of produce by reduction in broken rice grain while
dehusking.

11. • 3. Drudgery reduction through improved
farm implements : Number of manually
operated farm tools or implements have been
designed and developed for various
agricultural operations in the country by the
Research Institutes and State Agricutlural
Universities. These tools or implements
available have been primarily developed for
male workers, however, women workers have
to use them whenever required.

12. • As a result the output is low and many
occupational health problems also raised.
There is an urgent need to develop or refine
the existing farm tools/implements to suit for
the ability of the farm women, it will result in
drudgery reduction in operating such
implements as well as improving the output
per day i.e. efficiency of the operation .

13. • 4. Drudgery reduction in field preparation :
Use of small and efficient tools and
machinery like power tiller, bullock drawn
leveler, small spade can be used to save time
and reducing drudgery involved in field
preparation.
• 5. Drudgery reduction in transplanting : The
mechanical transplanters and direct seeding
implements are identified as the better
options for this cumbersome job.

15. • 6. Drudgery reduction in weed control : The
improved tools like hand rotary weeder and
use of proper herbicides would make the
weeding operation easy and efficient.
• 7. Drudgery reduction in plant protection :
The use of granular pesticides and motorized
as well as low volume sprayer could be of
immense use to the farm women.

16. • 8. Drudgery reduction in harvesting and
threshing : The field operations like harvesting
and threshing are time consuming due to in
availability of handy and efficient tools. A light
weight serrated sickle was developed by
Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering
(CIAE), Bhopal, which would be useful to
women. Now manual and also power operated
small paddy thresher are available in market.
Similarly for maize and sunflower small
manually and power operated sheller and
groundnut decorticators are developed.

18. e.g. drudgery reduction in post harvest operation :
Wheat
Activity /
unit
operation
Time required
Manual / conventional
operation
Equipment
used
1. Threshing 3-5 days depends on
wind availability
2-3 hours
2. Cleaning 2-3 hours 2-3 minutes
3. Milling 3-4 hours 5-10 minutes

19. e.g. drudgery reduction in groundnut decortications
Sr.
No.
Operation Output Advantage Disadvantage
1. By hand
(manual)
10-15
Kg/day
Low
breakage
Low capacity
2. Machine
manual
operated
50-60
Kg/hr.
Good for
small
quantity
Long duration
and continued
operation is
difficult
3. Machine
motorized
3000-
4000
Kg/hour
High
capacity
Relative more
breakage

20. • 10. Drudgery reduction through agriculture
processing activities : Agro produce processing
activities are mostly women intensive in rural areas
and women can earn more income through it than
the daily wages on farm. This activity provides
regular employment in shade and reduce drudgery
appreciably and hence preferred.
• The above discussed limited options are
available for women to reduce her drudgery. There
is an urgent need to develop women friendly
techniques / tools and implements for the efficient
working and to save time spent in different
operations which are women-labour-intensive.

21. WOMEN FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGIES, EQUIPMENTS
• Women have different ergonomically
characteristic than men i.e. body dimensions
are smaller and muscular strength while
aerobic capacity is lower than their male
counterparts. Also many times the postural
preferences vary as compared to men
workers. Therefore technologies, tools and
equipment suitable for women workers need
to be developed with their capabilities and
limitations while designing and using
different equipment.

22. • The principles for developing
technologies for farm women are ;
–Improving farm women’s productivity or
work efficiency.
–Increasing their income generating
capabilities.
–Increasing their employment opportunities
–Reducing the drudgery and health hazards
while working for farm and home.

23. • Role of females is increasing in agriculture activities
and this phenomenon is termed as “feminization of
agriculture”. Women are the majority of the
workers in many critical processes in agriculture.
For sake of understanding we will see the
involvement/share of women in land preparation
(32%), seed preparation and sowing (80%),
intercultural activities (86 %) and harvesting
reaping, winnowing, drying, cleaning and storage is
(84%). Rural women are much more over-burdened
than men owing to their multiple-occupations at
farm and home, roles, responsibilities and
inadequate use of technology.

24. • In one Himalayan study it was documented that a
farm women works equal to the work undertaken
by the bullock and the farmer. It was estimated that
a pair of bullock work 1064 hours, a man 1212 hrs.
and the women 3085 hrs. suggested a technology
model for rural women empowerment using
science and technology to ease women’s work load.
The emphasis should be to improve upon existing
skills, provide managerial capacities and the
understand the science behind the process. Such an
approach would persistently impress scientific
temper and make them more open to improved
emerging technologies for improving production
efficiency and reducing drudgery in day to day
work.

25. • Some of the new hi-tech agricultural
technologies like green revolution forced the
small women land holder to join the ranks of
wage earners. The technology like multiple
cropping increased the work load of women.
While a number of tasks performed by males
have been mechanized, the tasks usually
allotted to women continue to be annual and
drudgery prone.

26. • Even where improved techniques have been
found for the women’s activities, there is no
sufficient access to training in such
techniques some times. However, a few
brave and bold women have taken a lead on
their own initiative and are driving tractors in
Punjab. When women pilot can drive an aero
planes, and few courageous women have
started driving bus, truck, trains, car, auto
etc. why should farm women not be trained
to use mechanized devices, as these improve
efficiency and reduce drudgery.

27. • Tractorisation has been recognized as a vehicle for
removing drudgery and increasing the level of
farming so as to improve the life and work
environments of farmers.
• Development of a light weight improved model of
wheel hand hoe using a bicycle wheel which has a
ball bearing in place of the ordinary wheel. This was
preferred by both women and men farmers.
• If the farm women will get chance to take decision
in selection of implements in the field of agriculture
they will select the implements to help their tiring
hands, to minimize the drops of sweating from their
forehead.

28. Following tables provide the technological options for farm women
(Table 1) and improved farm equipments suitable for rural women (Table
2).
Table 1 : Technological Options For Farm Women
Sr.
No.
Operation Traditional
Technology
Improved Technology
1. Field
preparation
Deshi plough Tractor, power tiller, power
operated leveler.
2. Sowing in
upland rice
fields
Broadcasting
sowing hand
dropping of seeds
behind the plough
Animal or power operated seed
drill, use of transplanter /
dibbler.
3. Manuring Head loading of
raw farm yard
manuring in hilly
areas.
Use of full decomposed FYM,
incorporating legume in crop
rotation.

29. Sr.
No.
Operation Traditional
Technology
Improved Technology
4. Fertilizer
application
Manual
broadcast
Use of fertilizer drill
5. Weeding Manually by
khurpi or
weeding hook
Use of herbicides, use
of improved tools like
rotary weeder and
wheel hoes.
6. Plant
protection
Spraying/dusting Use of resistant
variety. Use of
improved / motorized
duster / sprayer
7. Harvesting Use of local
sickles
Mechanical harvester
like reaper, use of
serrated sickles.

30. Sr.
No.
Operation Traditional
Technology
Improved Technology
8. Threshing Manually by hitting
the bundles against
hard
surface/trampling
under bullock feet.
Use of thresher either operated
manually or power, maize and
sunflower sheller, groundnut
decorticator.
9. Winnowing Under naturally
blowing winds
Use of power/manually operated
winnower
10. Seed
treatment
Hand mixing Manual operated seed dressing
drums.
11. Fodder
collection
Manually from
distant places
Growing of fodder crops in crop
rotation. Use of dual purpose
varieties.
12. Fodder
chopping
Manually cutting Power operated fodder chop
cutter.

31. Sr.
No.
Operation Traditional
Technology
Improved
Technology
13. Cooking Traditional
Chullah
Smokeless chullah
14. Stalk
pulling
Manual Cotton stalk puller
15. Plucking /
picking
Hand
plucking
Pluckers as bhendi
plucker, fruit picker
16. Shelling Manual Maize sheller
17. Lighting Torch Solar head light,
head light

33. Table 2 : Improved farm implements for
post harvest / processing of produce
Sr.
No.
Operation Improved
equipment
Utility
1. Loading of
clean seed
Sack holder It holds sack in vertical open
position for easy loading of clean
seed.
2. Grain
cleaning
Paddle cum power
operated grain cleaner
It is pedder of 0.5 HP ele. Motor
separates dust dirt, stones, straw,
choffs etc.
3. Grain flour
separation
Grain flour separator It is 1 HP ele. Motor operated for
separating wheat flour into bran,
fine flour (maida), soji (semilins)
etc.
4. Soybean
dehulling
Manually operated
soybean dehuller
Manual operated to get soy split
(dal) free from hull and broken
pieces.
5. Soybean
dehulling
Power operated
Soybean dehulling
It is 1 HP ele. Motor driven
equipment to get soysplit (dal)

34. Sr.
No.
Operation Improved
equipment
Utility
6. Grain pearling Grain
peraler
5 HP / 3 phase elect. Motor driven
equipment for pearling of coarse cereals
and dehusking or scratching of pulses.
7. Splitting
legume (Dal
preparation)
Dall mill 2 HP elect. Motor operated equipment
for dehusking and splitting of pigeonpea,
blackgram, green gram, lentil etc.
legumes.
8. Grinding of
grain
Low cost
multipurpose
grain mill
1 HP elect. Motor operated equipment
for grinding of cereals, pulses to
produces flour powder.
9. Potato peeling Potato peeler Batch type hand operated equipment for
peeling outer skin of potatoes of any size.
10. Potato slicing Potato slicer Simple manual operated for slicing
potatoes to prepare chip & wafers.
11. Storing of
produce
Metallic
storage
Last longing, free from humidity

35. Significant women friendly agricultural
implements designed by ICAR Institutes :
• Seed Treatment Drum, Naveen Dibbler, Rotary
Dibber, Seed Drill, Paddy Drum Seeder, Rice
Transplanter, Cono Weeder, Long Handled
Weeder, Weeder (Wheel Hoe), Fertilizer
Broadcaster, Spraying safety kit, Improved
Sickle, Sugarcane Stripper, Tubular / Rotary
Maize Sheller, Groundnut Stripper, Hanging Type
double screen grain cleaner with Sac holder,
Mini Dal Mill, Hand operated Chaff cutter, Hand
Ridger, Bhindi Plucker, Wheel Barrow.

37. CHAPTER 10
EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN,
GROUP DYNAMICS FOR FARM WOMEN
• Agriculture Women Day is celebrated on 4th December,
& Kisan Day is celebrated on 23rd December ever year.
• By the mid 1980’s it was recognized that women
experience oppression (cruel treatment) differently
according to their class, caste, race, culture, religion,
age, history and so on. Now through out the globe
there is slogan for empowerment of women while
some countries feel the women should continue in
conformity with religious norms. We are at cross road
so far as social change is concerned. The important
agenda of the day is to empower women and
eradication of poverty with little emphasis on social
values.

38. EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

39. • Women empowerment concept was introduced at
the International Women Conference in 1985 at
Nairobi.
• According to Devdas (1999), women’s participation
in income generating activities is believed to increase
their status and decision making power. With
employment women do not remain as ‘objects’ of
social change but become ‘agents’ of it.
• A well known Srilata Bataliwala states Women’s
Empowerment as a process by which women gain
better control over material and intellectual resource
and challenges the ideology of patriarchy and the
gender based discrimination against women in all
institutions and structures of society.

40. • Aim of women empowerment : Women
empowerment principally aim at enhancing
their social function by a quantitative and
qualitative changes particularly in the field of
education, health care and employment,
which will bring the desired level of change.
• The Government and various voluntary
organization are providing many income
generating scheme to raise the economic
status of women.

41. • Definition : Women empowerment : In its
broadest sense, it is increasing self reliance of
poor people and specially poor women.
• Empowerment means that women live
their own life in a way that they think
appropriate on the basis of their condition of
family and improves their own qualities and
capabilities of which help themselves.

42. • Strategies for Empowerment of Rural Women
Veerabhadraiah and Fami (1999) suggested
several strategies for empowerment of rural
women. These were placed under three
categories.
• Short-term strategies :
• Mid-term strategies :
• Long-term strategies :

43. • Short-term strategies : Emphasis in this phase
is to fulfill the basic needs of rural women
through welfare programmes like.
• Literacy programme
• Family planning programme and health
education
• Nutrition programme for mothers and children
• Potable water and appropriate fuel for cooking
and heating the house
• Access to household technology
• Home economic programme

44. • Mid-term strategies : Emphasis is on facilitating the
involvement of rural women in economic activities and
strengthening their economic base for entering in social
and political mainstream of society.
Some strategies are ;
• Access to appropriate technology and financial
resources
• Ownership of productive resources
• Attaining income security through income generating
projects
• Access to communication media to improve their
communication and mediation skills
• Access to non-formal education like extension and
vocational education in order to improve their
entrepreneurial skills.

45. • Long-term strategies : Social and political mainstream
are important components of empowerment of rural
women at high level. Some strategies can be applied
at this phase are;
• Enhancing organizational and social leadership skills
in community action.
• Increasing their access to political power, policy
formulation and strategic gender training programme.
• Establishing organization or self help groups for their
own networking and empowerment through group
building.
• Providing distance education and correspondence
courses. Encouraging socio-cultural changes by
exploring gender issues.

46. • Women empowerment can be achieved through
following approaches :
• 1) Women empowerment through Self Help Groups
(SHGs) :
• The participation of women in SHG makes a
significant part of their empowerment both in social and
economic aspects. Organizing women in a self help
group, have been access credit at affordable rate for
productive or consumption purpose. The women’s
organization give women the opportunities to come
together and cooperate with each other. At the
community level, they find confidence to oppose village
elites and oppossers. In this process women give up fear
and gain self respect, autonomy and independence.

47. Women empowerment through
Self Help Groups

48. • 2) Women empowerment thorough distance
education :
• The knowledge, skills and inputs obtained as
distant learners could be used for women e.g.
decision making, organize the neighbor, insure
protection against dominism. As self distance
education hastens empowerment.
• 3) Women empowerment through credit
availability :
• Women’s access to the cooperative societies
banks or other organizations for demanding
credit facilities can empower the women.

49. Women
Empowerment
through
Education

50. • 4) Women empowerment through education :
• Women constitute roughly half of the world’s
population. Ravindranath Tagore has rightly said
‘Women is builder and moulder of the nations
destiny”. Women are in fact play a vital role in
human resources of the country. They are the
agent of change and education is considered a
key for this change, which is responsible for
national development. If your educate a boy you
educate an individual, but if you educate a girl
you educate a family, society and ultimately the
nation. Therefore education is the important
tool in empowerment and thereby nation’s
development.

51. Women
Empowerment
through
Education

52. • 5) Women empowerment through health
education :
• The health condition of the majority of the
women is miserable. Many are malnourished,
anemic, health problems persist due to
pregnancy, child birth or from work related
injuries/health hazards. The health educated
women are better able to adopt innovative
methods such as contraception which lengthen
birth intervals and reduce infant mortality,
equal distribution of food within families and
access to modern medical service and
practicising new more methods.

53. Empowerment through health education

54. • 6) Socio economic and cultural part of Women
empowerment :
• In rural areas women are totally dependent on men
as they are not benefited through economic power.
Women constitute a sizable section of rural work
force. The realizations of women’s full potential are
crucial for the overall socioeconomics development
and group of society. The economic empowerment of
women requires transfer of skills of management and
control of economic activities to enable them to feel
confident and empower. e.g. SHG is a small
economically homogenous and affinity group of rural
poor who voluntarily agree to contribute to a women
fund to be lent to its members, encourages savings
and promotes income generating activates.

55. • 6) Women empowerment through
employment :
• As a result of technology a high proportion
of jobs outsourced by firms are available to
women, therefore, they can work any where
at any time and raise their income to become
more financially independent and
empowered. Newer areas like telemarketing /
teleshopping, medical transcription etc. has
also opened up new job opportunities for
women.

56. • 8) Women’s political empowerment :
• Search has been working with marginalized
women for the past 10 years to bring about social
change and economic independence. In addition,
the ultimate aim has to bring these women in to
the political process, such that they can assert
themselves as a decision maker in the local self
Government Institutions (Panchyat Raj). The
women empowerment and development include
variables like food security, active participation,
political support, sound planning, socioeconomic
parameters, economic security and equitable
distribution of assets.

57. • The present program for women empowerment
does not include social values and their
implication in empowerment. Family being the
first unit of socialization and women being the
most important actor to play role they should be
brought under the fold of moral capacity
building. Every family and every community
badly need responsible mother, committed wife,
devoted sister and so on. The program of to day
can impart them how to be good mother, wife
and sister and effectively manage the family. This
would enable them to screen out desirable family
building variable and put them in right path.

58. • In the words of Swami Vivekanada “There
is no chance for welfare of the world unless
the condition of women in improved”. This
voice implies that condition of women should
improve but in the desired way so that
society derives benefits instead of leading to
family conflict (clash).