Female Work Participation in Rural West Bengal during 1991 2001

A GENDER ANALYSIS

Chandan Roy Department of Economics Kaliyaganj College

Paper presented as a participant in the UGC sponsored Refresher Course on Gender and Power: Practices, Representations, Strategies organized by School of Womens Studies, Jadavpur University, during 4-24November, 2009.

Female Work Participation in Rural West Bengal during 1991 2001 A GENDER ANALYSIS
Chandan Roy Kaliyaganj College 1 Introduction In a predominantly agricultural country like India, women play distinctive role in rural economic activities in earning a livelihood for their family. However, despite that only 16.8 % of rural women are employed while 44.5 % of rural men participate in the work force, according to 2001 census. Not only that, during the last decade only about 15% of women find foothold in the organized sector. Most women work in the unorganized sector where they constitute about half of the work force but are characterized by vulnerable section due to lack of skill, education, lesser mobility and so on. Thus they keep moving between the status of self-employed, casual labor and unemployed. Thus the informal sector remains largely unprotected and outside the realm of public policy. Table: 1 Rural Work Participation during 1991, 2001 1991 All India West Bengal Tamil Nadu Punjab Female 18.6 8.7 32 2.2 Male 51.8 51.2 54.9 54.9 Female 16.8 5.8 52.6 14 2001 Male 44.5 49.3 49.4 49.4

Source: Census 1991, 2001

Table-1 reveals that in rural sector at national level the female work participation has fallen from 1991 to 2001. West Bengal is the worst performer, while Punjab has successfully upgraded its status during 1991 2001, for economic empowerment in rural sector is concerned. Tamil Nadu has shown excellence in this sector. The FWPR has raised from 32 to 52.6 during 1991 2001. The gender difference with respect to work participation Rate stands 36% for West Bengal where as for the country it is 26% ( GOI, Annual Report, Dept of Women & children Development, MHRD, 2001 ) 2 Objective of Study West Bengal has one of the lowest rates of female work participation in the country. Though it is in the only state where political instability never took place to digress the progressive nature of the economic policies, still the gender disparity at the rural level is in an alarming state. The state is predominantly rich in agriculture and the land reform measure was very 2

successfully implemented here. All these issues may make anybody inquisitive about the reason for poor female work participation in Rural West Bengal. This paper with its limited scope of approach, time and data-base would try to find out the basic reasons for this lower participation among rural women in West Bengal and thereby would suggest some strategies to restructure the existing policies. 3. Employment Generation & Nature of work in Rural West Bengal 3.1 Employment Generation The average rate of employment generation in terms of aggregate main work has been lower than the rate of expansion of population in the country during 1991 2001. As a result, the pattern of job creation has shifted towards more casual, marginal, part time and insecure contracts or self-employment. West Bengals experience has been similar to the rest of the country, although slightly better than the all India average. For India as a whole the collapse in rural employment has been the most marked with absolute decline in employment opportunities in rural India. Non agricultural employment in the rural areas did not increase fast enough to make up for this decline. In West Bengal, employment growth lagged well behind output growth. The macroeconomic forces which contributed to the slowdown in employment opportunities are reduced public investment and expenditure on public services, effects of import competition on manufacturing activity, inadequate flows of bank credit to small producers in all sectors. However unlike rural India, rural West Bengal did not experience an absolute decline in agricultural employment, which continued to grow but at a slow rate. NSS introduced two indicators for measuring Rural Employment Generations ( I ) Usual status = Person as employed if she/he was engaged in economic activity during past one year preceding the survey. ( ii ) Daily Status = Person as employed if she/he was engaged in economic activity during the day preceding the survey.

Table: 2 Growth rate of Rural Employment by usual status in West Bengal & Daily Status Time Period 1993 to 1993-94 1993-94 to 1999-2000
Source: WBHDR, 2004

Usual Status Female Male 0.84 2.69 -0.8 1.53

Daily Status Female Male -0.28 3.49 -0.17 4.36

In terms of usual activity, while male employment shows a sharp decline in growth, that for women has actually turned negative over the latest period, i.e. the second part of the 1990s. In terms of daily status, this possibly captures the real state of daily market. The decline in womens employment is especially disturbing, given the already low work participation rates of women in West Bengal. In the period of the 1980s and early 1990s, the positive changes in the country side brought about by land reforms and increased agricultural output had then impact on generating more rural employment. However, the more recent period since the mid 1990s which is when the broader main economic process such as economicliberalization and reduced per capita government expenditure had their effects on employment generation in rural West Bengal. 3.2 Nature of Work The wide and varied ambit of rural womens work in west Bengal are ranging from agricultural and ancillary economic activities to those necessary for maintaining household. The following chart illustrates various facets of rural womens work in West Bengal.

Chart: 1

Rural Womens Work in West Bengal

Farm

Non-Farm

Crop Production

Ancillary

Animal Husbandry

Household

NonHousehold

Rice

Other Works

* Seed Nursery * Processing of straw * Poultry

* Transplanting * Weeding * Harvesting * Threshing * Cleaning * Drying * Parboiling * Milking * Storage * Fodder collection * Home-stead Gardening * Food Processing * Maintenance of fishing net

* Cooking * Marketing * duck breeding * Cleaning * Bamboo * goat * Childcare /cane work * dairy * Fire wood * Weaving * agriculture collection * Drinking water collection * Preparation of cow dunk fuel * Care of old and disabled * Maintenance and dwelling

Source: B. Mitra et al (1990), Women in Agriculture Technological Perspective ed by C. Prasad & Shri Ram.

4. Categories of female Worker: District wise Analysis

Workers can be categorized between Main Worker and Marginal Worker. The census defines main workers as those who main activity was participation in economically productive activities for 183 days or more in the previous year. Marginal workers works are those whose main activity was participation in economi9cally productive activities for less than 183 days. Table : 3 Main Workers & Marginal Workers in rural West Bengal (1991 & 2001) (in percentages) Time Period Main Workers Marginal Workers Men Women Men Women 1991 51.18 8.74 0.9 4.33 2001 46.00 8.87 8.3 11.83
Source: WBHDR, 2004

The growing marginalization among women workers is a worrisome trend in the above table. It signifies comparatively greater dependence of women on short duration/ uncertain/ marginal work. WBHDR (2004) says that the lowest recorded rates of female work participation in West Bengal have typically been seen as evidence against gender discrimination, not only because they may reflect under reporting due to social invisibility and lack of recognition of womens unpaid work. The next table (Table 4) shows the gender based distribution of main workers according to three major livelihoods as cultivators, agricultural labor and household industry for West Bengal. Table 4 percentages) Main Worker Cultivator Agricultural Laborers Household Industry Other works
Source : WBHDR (2004)

Classification of Main Workers in West Bengal : 1991 & 2001 ( in

1991 Men 30.2 22.7 2.8 44.3 Women 16.2 37.9 11.3 34.7 Men 20.8 22.6 4.0 52.7

2001 Women 13.4 32.4 18.0 36.2

The Table 4 shows that the greatest percentage of women in West Bengal depend agriculture for their livelihood. Analysts pointed out that a large part of the work of the agricultural labor have been stereotyped and the sex ratio is higher in those sector compared to cultivator. However, the importance of household industry has also gone up quite sharply. This is a strong process of employment diversification in rural West Bengal. This means that there exists a significant amount of small scale and cottage industries in rural areas which has attracted gainful employment. Table - 5 has shown district level data on work participation

Table 5 District level Data on Work Participation in West Bengal in 2001 ( in percentages) Districts & State Bardhaman Birbhum Bankura Hawrah Hoogly Purulia 24 Parganas (N) 24 Parganas (S) Nadia Murshidabad Uttar Dinajpur Dakhin Dinajpur Malda Jalpaiguri Darjeeling Koch Behar West Bengal Marginal Worker Cultivation Agricultural Labors Male 26 33.4 27.8 10.5 21 25.3 13.8 26 26.2 33.8 34.5 30 30.5 14.1 8.9 24.2 22.6 Female 44.4 47.4 48.9 7.7 36.7 52.4 12 25.8 10.6 8.4 51.7 50.9 31 26.1 13.5 43.5 32.4

Male 15 15 18.1 11.2 10.3 26.6 7.7 18.1 6.6 10.3 10.3 9.8 14.8 10.7 10.7 8.3 12.7

Female 49.1 59.5 63.2 39 45.6 67.4 35 59 39.7 37.6 54.1 54.3 53.5 46.7 28.3 58 51

Male 17.1 27.6 36 5.4 16.4 34.3 11.1 16 22.3 23.2 33.6 37.6 27.6 22 13.7 39.9 20.8

Female 5.1 9.1 21.4 2.3 8.7 26.6 3.4 15.7 8.4 2.7 19.9 15.3 7.2 16.4 16.7 31.1 13.4

Workers in Household Industry Male Female 2.8 12.4 11 16.2 3.7 9.7 9.3 28.1 3.1 12.8 5.7 10.1 2.5 14.3 4.3 6.6 7.2 1.5 2.6 4.7 1.3 2.2 2.4 4 14.3 31.4 64.7 8.6 9.6 37.1 28.2 3.6 7.9 18

Source : GOWB, Statistical Abstract : 2001 2002

District level data reveals that women workers participation dominates in marginal worker bracket compared to their male counter part. Purulia shows the existence of highest marginal worker and Darjeeling shows the lowest. However, the GDI rank of Purulia is 15 and Darjeeling is 2. Female cultivators are highest in Koch Behar and lowest in Howrah. However, in cultivator category male workers dominate female workers. In agricultural labor category, female workers dominate male workers. Purulia shows highest participation and Howrah has the lowest. In West Bengal House Hold Industry, the female work participation is very dominating. Mushidabad shows 64.7 work participation followed by Malda (37.1). Darjeeling shows the lowest work participation. Paradoxically, the GDI ranks of the best performing districts in female work participation, like Koch Behar, Purulia and Murshidabad are very low like 13, 15 and 9 respectively. On the other hand, worst performing districts in this context have higher GDI ranks. The plausible implication of this paradoxical findings would be that female in rural Bengal get such a lower payment that their work participation would hardly carry any impact on their income index. 5. Low FWPR in West Bengal : Reason Analysis The brief reasons for the declining trend of female work participation in West Bengal can be enumerated as follows: (1) Much of the productive work of the women of farm families is quite often not qualitatively different from some of the purely domestic chores and that tends to be under reported. This sort of under reporting of female self-employment in rural areas would naturally affect female participation rate. (2) According to A.P. Pandey, a little education or enlightenment leads a woman to wish to become more lady-like and work less hard and that this factor is possibly to some extent more prevalent in rural areas. However, there exhibits a reverse and more popular opinion (Mukherjee, 2004) regarding lower participation of female worker. More than 70 % of women workers in rural Bengal are reported without education. This continues to be a serious barrier to skill formation and to better employment opportunities particularly in the context of globalization. (3) A very similar argument was that the drastic reduction in female labor participation in rural areas was due to the exclusion of housewives who were helping in economic activity largely in household industry or cultivation. (4) Technological change introduced in agriculture like use of HYV seeds, use of mechanical devices etc released marginal worker, i.e., women, children and elderly men from agriculture and the female rural worker started devoting more time to their homes, children and education.

(5) A rural woman is first and foremost a homemaker and a reproducer. After that she is permitted to earn for the interest of the family. She is a late entrant and thereby basically unskilled. (6) Women labor is more attached to family. So basically she is immobile. This also reduces her scope of being added as a work participant. (7) In agriculture work has become stereotyped and gender biased. It has been assumed that female workers cannot perform beyond those stereotyped work. Employees prefer women labor in harvesting and carrying inter culture, transplanting and winnowing etc. on daily basis. (8) Wage discrimination exists in Rural W.B. Male laborers are paid in cash or in kind or both. Payment towards female laborers was never solely in cash. According to the Govt. of India Labor Bureau, in rural West Bengal daily wages for men for transplantation work were Rs. 52 /- while comparative wages for women who are acknowledged to specialize in such work amounted to Rs. 49 /-. Womens wages for weeding were at the same level ( Rs. 49) but for men they went up to Rs 53.70. Average daily wages for unskilled labor were Rs 51.40 for men and Rs. 46.90 for women.

6. Way Ahead Few policy restructuring is essential to increase the employment opportunities of rural women in West Bengal and at the same time enumeration process needs to be rectified so that productive work of rural women may not be under reputed. Date insufficiency is another major problem of this sector which kept various dimensional problem of this gender bias rural sector mostly outside the realm of policy makers. However, within our limited scope of analysis the restructuring policies which we need to be emphasized are categorized as follows: (1) More and more non-farm agricultural employment opportunities need to be created as displacement of female labor in agriculture has been increasing significantly. (2) For the rural informal sector workers, access to credit, training for new jobs, breaking of stereotypes, reduction of wage disparity and occupational diversification need urgent attention from Institutional level. (3) Self-employment has acted, as a safe guard against joblessness and this should be encouraged further as prevention against global unemployment. (4) In all the districts of West Bengal, gender stereotyping has become significant. To prevent these, provision of training for non-stereotypical jobs, after doing a proper survey of the demand for such, needs to be done.

(5) More thrust to be given to increase the level of literacy among women, which would help them to gain skill and ultimately that would reduce the wage disparities across gender. (6) Thrust should also be given to empower women not only economically but also in other social aspects. Collective action of female co-operatives, trade-union and self Help Group need to be revamped and enhanced both quantitatively and qualitatively. More and more micro studies need to be done to raise the voice of these lower and neglected strata of the rural society. Then only we can expect a new dawn for the rural women and thereby their empowerment and emancipation.

References: * * Pandey A.P. Mukhopadhyay Pallav Maheta Asha Kapur : Wages and income on the basis of gender in Indian Agriculture, online. : Problem of Gender inequality and exposure of education of women in West Bengal , online. : Recasting Indices for developing countries : A Gender Empowerment in India, http://www.vstor.org

Shariff Abusaleh (2009): Gender empowerment in India : concept and measures, online Bagchi Jasodhara (2005) : The changing status of women in West Bengal 19972000 Mukherjee Mukul (2004) : A situation Analysis of women & girls in West Bengal West Bengal Human Development Report (2004)

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