Republic of India Livelihoods in intermediate towns
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Table 11: Gender and Participation in Non-Farm Economy
- Box 2: Beauty Parlour and Female Enterprise in Bhagwatipur
- Table 12: Gender and Monthly Income
- Table 13: Gender and Caste
5.6: Women in the Non-Farm Economy: As mentioned, the overall participation of women in the non-farm economy remains low (9%). If we were to take a look at the type of non-farm activity in which the participation of women was registered (>0) among the respondents (see table below), it becomes clear that they are predominantly engaged (30 percent) in caste based and traditional occupations, closely followed by engagement in vegetable and fruit selling (22.2 percent).The existing literature on the subject tells us that in rural Bihar, women’s labour force participation rate has increased to 67 percent in 2009-10 from 56 percent in 1981-82, which may be accounted to the high incidence of male migration and a change in social norms (Rodgers et al 2013). However women overwhelmingly report agricultural work as their primary occupation (Rodgers et al 2013) as compared to men who show a diversified pattern. Visaria and Basant (199) also indicate that there has been an increase in the share of non-agricultural employment in the rural workforce during the 1980s, with the bulk of development being casual in nature and a higher participation of men. According to Unni (1998), ‘both the absolute number and proportion of women in the non-agricultural sector to the total is much lower than that of men’.
This appears to be case in Bhagwatipur and Satghara as well. The presence of women among non-farm activities (except for agricultural labour and marginal vending) is visibly low. The market area for Bhagwatipur is limited within a stretch of less than a kilometre. Shops flank the main road on both the sides with ample room in front of the shops for people to congregate, chat and share time over tea. Along the edges of the road and before the entrance of the shops as well as by the street corners, one could see a significant number of women fruit and vegetable sellers. These are either operating on small carts stationed at one place or on the ground with a basket of produce in front of them. Most of these women are from the Mallah community, whose husbands have either migrated out or perform daily wage labour to eke a living. Some of these women are also the primary income earners of the family, living in the village, whose husbands are either dead or unable to work due to a physical disability. Among the fruit sellers operating through small carts by the road side, fruit supplies are bought on credit, which is paid off or taken forward depending upon the volume of sales. For a high number of women, such scale of vending goes towards contributing towards the household income, whether in addition to the remittance sent in by a migrant male member or in the absence of one. Shivkali Devi, a forty-year old woman in Bhagwatipur manages a small make-shift arrangement from where she shells packed consumer goods like biscuits, toffees, sachets of shampoo and strips of soap. Her husband is a migrant worker in Chandigarh and has been working there for nearly thirty years as a construction labourer. According to Shivkali Devi, whose family is landless, the earnings from her business are very meagre and only go towards some subsistence expenditure in the village, most of which is met by the remittance that her husband provides for. According to her, I used to be at home, without much work. I thought why can’t I start something small and manage some of the household expenditure? Reena Devi, who runs a fruit stall in the market area of Satghara however runs her business as the sole income earner of her household. She told us that she has been selling fruits for the last twenty years, her husband deserted her and she had to assume the responsibility of the primary cash earner for her family, which includes a fourteen-year-old son who helps her with her business. It is a lot of trouble, I run a household of four all by myself, and this is not even a regular or permanent source of income. It is also clear that the above set of women respondents is from the EBC groups (Mallah). Traditionally upper caste and Muslim are missing in action from the various activities within the non-farm economy and the SC (Mahadalit) women are only represented in either agricultural labour or in the traditional caste based occupation of weaving bamboo baskets and items (See Qualitative Information: Case Study A IV). In the comparatively smaller market area of Bhagwatipur, Apsara Beauty Parlour can’t be missed, especially as its red signboard stands out among the scattered shops for eateries and groceries. Part of a house, with a grocery shop for its neighbour, run by the same person as the beauty parlour, Apsara beauty parlour is one of the few only women owned and run enterprises in Bhagwatipur. Savita is a twenty four year old woman of the Halwai sub caste. She has four sisters, two of whom are married and two are studying in school and in college respectively. She herself got married less than a year ago. According to Savita, her parents died very early and it was her elder sister who took on the responsibility of raising the rest of the daughters. They own a small plot of land, which they have given out for sharecropping. Most of the family’s earning comes from the grocery shop that is next to the beauty parlour. Savita opened the beauty parlour only six months before. It is a makeshift arrangement in one of the open areas within the house, with minimum and basic utilities and equipment. ‘I always wanted to be a beautician’, she said, ‘I always had a penchant for make-up and for dressing up and wondered how I could turn it into a living’. She learnt the skills from a beauty parlour in Madhubani town, and then opened one in Bhagwatipur This job is one of honour. The best part is that I can operate a business from within my home and I only have to interact with women, nobody can ever raise a question about my dignity Savita is very hopeful about the prospects of her business. ‘Bhagwatipur is a small settlement but there is a growing acceptance among women to turn out well, especially on occasions of weddings and festivals. This will only grow further’, she said. The other two younger sisters, want to study further and one of them wants to become a doctor. The eldest sister said, ‘we will support her in whatever she wants to do. It is only good if she can study further and make a decent life for herself’. Box 2: Beauty Parlour and Female Enterprise in Bhagwatipur However, there are emergent activities within the non-farm activities, which seem to be closely associated with women but they are marginal to the non-farm economy as a whole. Interestingly, both of these activities have emerged in response to the local demands of fashion and beauty related consumerism among women – the business of a beauty parlour and of a boutique. Both, in Satghara and in Bhagwatipur, beauty parlours and boutiques were recent additions to the market, catering to a ‘ladies only’ clientele. It is equally interesting to note that they are closely interwoven with the other non-farm activities like tent, catering, DJ and sound service, photography and videography that have come up due to the services required for organizing weddings within the village. However, unlike the ‘men’s parlours’, which are an extension of the traditional caste occupation of barbers (the Nais by caste), women in the business are from diverse communities and none from Nai caste. The context of aspirations for young women, therefore, is also changing, though with limitations. Even though there are very few families like Savita and her sisters’, which support independent female enterprise in the village, it is not altogether absent. There is a limited but existent entry of women in public employment like aanganwadi and ASHA workers, which are seen as being ‘dignified’ jobs for women, and also feminized to great extent. These developments also differ along the lines of caste and community backgrounds – even as traditionally upper caste women are more likely to study and pursue higher education, women and girls from Muslim, EBC and SC groups have a high rate of dropping out of school, higher than the men from their communities. Like a Suri male respondent in Bhagwatipur informed us Both boys and girls from the traditionally upper castes are no longer in the village; they go out, not to work but to study. Their parents are more likely to invest in the education of boys as well as girls as they see returns from it – job for a boy and a decent marriage proposal for the girl. The availability of capital is constrained for women, as much as it is for men depending upon their social background. However, the scale of operation for women run enterprises is smaller as compared to those run and owned by men. Given that women are marginal to the non-farm economy – they are represented mostly in activities like vegetable and fruit vending (Other OBC), traditional caste based occupations (bangle making, basket weaving) and a few new activities in the market like tailoring and beauty parlours.
The income levels reported by women tend to be lower than men. If we were to look at the Table 12, it becomes clear to us that nearly one fourth (22.2 per cent) of the total women respondents report a monthly income of less than Rs. 2500 as compared to only 8 per cent of the male respondents. None of the women respondents in either of the markets reported a monthly income higher than Rs. 10,000 per month whereas 13.6 per cent of the male respondents did. On the whole, of the women reporting participation in the non-farm economy, 45 per cent report earning less than Rs. 5000 per month and 41 per cent report merely making ends meet.
Therefore, not only is the participation of women in the non-farm economy restricted to marginal activities at large, the returns from these activities are also low. Typically, women are not solo migrants i.e. they do not migrate either for work or for education by themselves but accompany their families, usually their husbands after marriage, if at all. However this does vary across caste – for example in the Brahmin dominated Nahar Bhagwatipur tola of Bhagwatipur, most of the women had moved to the city with their husbands for good – which was an exception when compared to other tolas where the families including the wife stay behind. A detailed examination of the interaction of gender and migration is however the subject matter for another investigation.
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