Essay On Role Of Women In Rural Employment

In developing countries like India, agricultural sector emerges as the largest source of employment in rural areas. The agriculture sector because of its low skill requirements also becomes an easy mainstay for women but inequality with respect to work participation and wages, between male and female workers is commonly seen in agriculture in rural sector. Female agricultural workers are often assigned the least desirable farm activities with low wages. About 52-75% of women engaged in agriculture are illiterate which makes them less able to shift to skilled jobs and makes them dependent on agriculture for their survival and growth. In India the ratio of female to male agricultural wages and work participation varies widely across states. The

Agricultural sector in India has undergone some major changes over the past few years but one thing that is still same is the visualization of women in this sector. It continues to employ 2/3rd of the female workforce but has failed to give them the due recognition of employed labor. Inequality that women face also extends to the wages that they receive compared to their male counterparts. Women are employed in different activities like land preparation, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, threshing and winnowing but they are all largely vulnerable jobs and women are kept to the status of casual laborers who:

1. Do not have job security.

2. Have fewer rights and protections.

3. Have less economic mobility.

In 2004-05, 29% of female rural workers were casual laborers as compared to 23% of male rural workers and women’s wages were 69% of male wages in the same year.

There has been a decline in gender wage inequality in this sector but there are huge state wise differentials. States like Himachal Pradesh which had 0% gender wage gap from 2007-2009, witnessed 34.21% wage inequality in 2014-15. While in other states there has been a mixed trend regarding gender pay gap.

The table above shows the percentage of male and female workers engaged in agriculture in different states of India. An analysis of the table shows the following