Women’s Involvement in off-farm activities for Household Food Security; An Empirical Study in Coochbehar District of West Bengal

Author: Trishita Banik, Sabita Mondal, Ushia Rai, Shrabantika Ghosh and Subhajit Chakraborty

Download PDF

Abstract

Farm women play a vital role in both the farm and off-farm sectors and contribute both to agriculture and household food security. But they lack access to resources, face various constraints, and maintain a poor socio-personal and socio-economic status. Thus, a study was conducted during 2019-21, to study the profile of the farm women, their involvement in off-farm activities, and the constraints they face in the Coochbehar district of West Bengal. The study was done in two blocks of the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. 120 farm women were selected randomly from four villages as respondents. The data were collected by personal interview method with the help of a structured interview schedule. Statistical tools like frequency, percentage, mean, SD, ranking, etc have been used to analyze the data. It has been found that a majority of the farm women were of middle age, Hindu, belong to the general caste and APL categories and have a medium level of education. They were married, belonged to marginal farmers’ families with no land of their own, lived in mixed-type houses, cultivated 1-2 crops, had SHG membership, and reared live stocks. They preferred television as a source of information among the different mass media sources. The off-farm activities found in the study area were livestock product selling, tailoring, agricultural wage labour, entrepreneurship, non - agricultural labor, shopkeeping, and some private services. It has been seen that livestock product selling and tailoring were the most preferred activities. Socio-psychological problems and different external factors were found to be the most important constraints, women face, while thinking about or engaging themselves in different off-farm income opportunities. The study recommended raising the socio-personal and socio-economic status of the women. Policies across different sectors like agriculture, credit, labour markets, etc. need to recognise women as equal workers and contributors to household food security as well as the overall household economy by ensuring equal entitlements to resources, services, and returns to labour (wages). Women should be recognised as farmers and given full support (including credit and information) to pursue agricultural enterprises irrespective of their land ownership status.

Keywords

Farm women, food security, Indian women, off farm activities

Conclusion

Food security is the basic right of human beings and women play a vital role in securing its accessibility and availability. Women are performing various responsibilities and roles in the food system of our society. They are not only playing the role of a mother and a housewife but also of a farmer, laborer, and an entrepreneur. Hence, it is required that the socio-personal and socio-economic status of the women should be raised and their education level must be improved. This would be a dependable achievement that will positively ensure food security not only in the short term but also in the long run. Hence, there is a need to start short-term intervention strategies for women who strive for household food security by working on farms and off farms, under unfavorable and underprivileged conditions. Off-farm activities should be diversified and rural farm women should be made aware of its advantages for livelihood. Policies across different sectors like agriculture, credit, labor markets, etc. need to recognize women as equal workers and contributors to agriculture and household food security as well as the overall household economy by ensuring equal entitlements to resources, services, and returns to labor (wages). Women should be recognized as farmers and given full support (including credit and information) by society to pursue agricultural enterprises irrespective of their land-ownership status. The terms and conditions of women’s engagement in the nonfarm sector should be relaxed and encouraged through improved access to resources, market, information, transportation, etc.

References

-

How to cite this article

Trishita Banik, Sabita Mondal, Ushia Rai, Shrabantika Ghosh and Subhajit Chakraborty (2023). Women’s Involvement in off-farm activities for Household Food Security; An Empirical Study in Coochbehar District of West Bengal. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(6): 182-186.