Discussion of Presentations for Women’s Conference
A preliminary discussion on papers authored by researchers associated with the Foundation for Agrarian Studies on the theme of women’s work was held at the office of the Foundation on November 9 – 10, 2018. These papers will be presented at the International Conference on “Women’s Work in Rural Economies” to be held from November 30 to December 2, 2018.
The session began with S. Niyati’s presentation on features of women’s labour in rice cultivation using the data from Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI). The paper showed that piece-rated labour tends to conceal the gender division of labour in villages. Abhinav Kapoor presented the research, led by Professor Yoshifumi Usami, on measuring female work participation rates in rural India. Their research show that women who engage in kitchen gardening and animal husbandry are not included in the official statistics which are used to calculate work participation rates. Arindam Das discussed the differences in wage rates between male and female labour using PARI data and official sources. According to this study, there exists a higher wage gap between male and female labour in southern States than in northern States. Madhav Tipu Ramachandran and Arindam presented estimates of cost of cultivation and crop incomes from their survey of group farming collectives in Kerala.
A few presentations based on the time-use surveys undertaken by the Foundation in two villages of Karnataka – Alabujanahalli, Mandya district, and Siresandra, Kolar district – were also discussed in the session. Madhura Swaminathan presented the results from time-use surveys which showed that women spent a significant amount of time in general production activities that are not accounted in the system of national accounting. Ritika Goenka and Madhura discussed their research on energy expenditure in rural women. Their study concludes that women spent very high energy in their day-to-day activities. Shruti Nagbhushan presented on the importance of sericulture and mulberry cultivation in women’s work in Karnataka. Vijayamba R. showed the results from time-use surveys pertaining to women’s work in livestock maintenance from the two villages in Karnataka.