Working conditions of Women Agricultural Labourers in Cuttack District of Odisha

Author: Smitashree Das and B.P. Mohapatra

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Abstract

Agriculture plays a vital role as the backbone of a nation’s economy. Rural sectors of India completely depend upon agriculture as their basic livelihood. Here Women’s agricultural labour force plays the most important contribution to the farming of the nation. Women agricultural labourers are socially and financially the poorest section of society. Unemployment, illiteracy, under nutrition, dual responsibility, shortage of wage, lack of access to resources, indecisive behaviour, and lack of efficiency in handling technology are major drawbacks of women agricultural labourers which create major hindrances in their working conditions. This research explains their wage structure, major involvement both in farm and home, working hours in the field, and major challenges encountered by women agricultural labourers. Hence to bring gender equity, reform gender equality, and provide equal rights to women agricultural labourers, there should be equal access to natural resources, agri-inputs, finance, technologies, equipment and knowledge. The purpose of this study was to measure the extent of production and non-production activities and to analyse the nature and extent of engagement of women agricultural labourers which directly or indirectly affect their working environment along with the problems encountered by women agricultural labourers. Multi stage random sampling technique was followed to select the sample for the study. A structured interview schedule has been prepared for data collection. The study was based upon both primary and secondary data. The primary data had been collected from 250 sample respondents. The secondary data had been collected from journals, books, articles, reports and websites. The data was analysed through SPSS software package and interpreted for result. This paper discovered underemployment, illiteracy and less access to the basic human surviving facilities is the major hurdles in growth of a female agricultural labourers’ life.

Keywords

Women agricultural labourers, working conditions, problems

Conclusion

As India is the country of agriculture and women agricultural labourers are the largest contribution towards its production aspects, hence their working condition should properly analyzed and the several challenges and problems faced by them in their working environment should be encountered properly and timely. Almost half of the world’s agricultural workforce comprises of women. They are contributing from production to sale as well as preparation of food. Though traditionally role of women worker in agricultural was under-estimated. Women are working as paid labour or unpaid family member in agriculture in developing countries but they are still facing gender inequalities (Vetrivel & Manigandan 2013). This study found and concluded about their production and non-production activities, wage structure, working hours and challenges faced by the women agricultural labourers. It is concluded majority of respondents are contributing their major time in sowing, storage and land preparation in the field and in household function they are mostly involving in cooking, taking care of children and washing clothes and utensils, whereas most of them are daily wager. Mostly working in between 2-8 hours and they are quite dissatisfied about their shortage of wages as compared to their hard work. Kanagarathinam (2014) investigated that around 52% of unorganized workers are engaged in agriculture and allied sectors. Agricultural workers are disadvantages rural groups such as small, subsistence farmers, tenants & sharecroppers, the unemployed and the landless. They get very low and irregular wages, wage discrimination between male & females, no public holiday and no standard daily working hours. In addition, they have very poor working conditions, lack of dignity, seasonal unemployment and harassment issues. So they have to face a lot of challenges like unpaid work, wage discrimination, low wages, dual responsibility, rigid tradition, lack of training facilities, triple burden of work etc. Goswami (2013) concluded that poor women are contributing more to household income by working as a labour even under poor working conditions and with lower wages to improve the economic conditions of family. There were no land ownership amongst female and even they do not have any right on their earnings. It was also proved that in spite of having more shares of females as agricultural labour than men, they get lower wages than males. Hence this paper discovers some emerging issues arising in working situation of women agricultural labourers. Underemployment, illiteracy and less access to the basic human surviving facilities is the major hurdles in growth of a female agricultural labourers’ life. Thresia (2004) pointed out some very important issues of women agricultural workers. The biggest issue was related to physical (abortion, stillbirths, and premature deliveries) and mental health because of the dual work burden, economic and social insecurity, poverty. In addition, they have gender discrimination in terms of proper education, employment and resources, which make them helpless and powerless with low self-esteem. Basic facilities like clean drinking water and 28 washroom facilities were also not available in spite of having long working hours with lower wage rates on farms. Therefore the Government should take interest in solving their problems and focus on implementation on beneficiaries’ schemes rather than only invention of new ones, so that women agricultural labourers will easily overcome from these obstacles and can lead a better life. The study shows that 94 per cent of the total women workers worked in the in formal sector in India. They have faced many problems like gender discrimination, low wages etc. their contribution in terms of income generation was less than male workers. This study suggested that women worker need economical and political support from government. New government measures are needed to the development of unorganized sector (Sharma, 2012).

References

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How to cite this article

Smitashree Das and B.P. Mohapatra (2022). Working conditions of Women Agricultural Labourers in Cuttack District of Odisha. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(2a): 618-622.