Socio –Economic Status

Women in Agriculture

Lesson 4 : Socio –Economic and Political Status of Rural Women

Socio –Economic Status

Concept & Meaning
Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation. When analyzing a family’s SES, the household income, earners' education, and occupation are examined, as well as combined income, versus with an individual, when their own attributes are assessed.

Socio-economic development is the process of social and economic development in a society. Socio-economic development is measured with indicators, such as GDP, life expectancy, literacy and levels of employment. Changes in less-tangible factors are also considered, such as personal dignity, freedom of association, personal safety and freedom from fear of physical harm, and the extent of participation in civil society.
Socio economic development of women refers to build women’s status on the basis of her health parameters, educational parameters, economic contribution, demographic dividends and political participation.

social change may include changes in nature , social institutions, social behaviour or social relations.

Economic development can be referred to as the quantitative and qualitative changes in the economy. Such actions can involve multiple areas including development of human capital, critical infrastructure, regional competitiveness, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, health, safety, literacy, and other initiatives.

In spite of urbanization and industrialization, our culture and economy are predominantly agrarian, rural based. So empowering women, who are the backbone of our agrarian economy, is a sure path to achieve major economic gains. Our development efforts have yielded creditable benefits for women in doubling their life expectancy over the last fifty years, and considerably reducing female infant mortality and child mortality rates. Women have a crucial role to play in the modern society.

Poverty:
According to a recent information nearly 38% of India’s population (380 million) is poor. Since 1972 poverty has been defined on basis of the money required to buy food worth 2100 calories in urban areas and 2400 calories in rural areas. Poverty is one of the main problems which have attracted attention of sociologists and economists. It indicates a condition in which a person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for his physical and mental efficiency. It is a situation people want to escape. It gives rise to a feeling of a discrepancy between what one has and what one should have. The term poverty is a relative concept. It is very difficult to draw a demarcation line between affluence and poverty.

Even after more than 50 years of Independence, India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 260.3 million are below the poverty line, of which 193.2 million are in the rural areas and 67.1 million are in urban areas. More than 75% of poor people reside in villages. Poverty level is not uniform across India.

The causes of rural poverty are manifold including inadequate and ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programmes. The overdependence on monsoon with non-availability of irrigational facilities often result in crop-failure and low agricultural productivity forcing farmers in the debt-traps. The rural communities tend to spend large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like marriage; feast etc. Our economic development since Independence has been lopsided. There has been increase in unemployment creating poverty like situations for many. The other causes include dominance of caste system which forces the individual to stick to the traditional and hereditary occupations. Women contribute considerably to household income through farm and non-farm activities as well as through work as agricultural labours. Women’s work as family labour is underestimated and mostly unnoticed. There are several reasons of women’s poverty.
There are strong evidences to suggest that women are the worst sufferers from poverty- related deprivations as they have twin disadvantages of gendered deprivation and inequalities as well as poverty.

Rural Women and Employment
Contrary to the common perception, a large percent of women in India work. The National data collection agencies accept the fact that there is a serious under-estimation of women's contribution as workers. However, there are far fewer women in the paid workforce than there are men. In urban India Women have impressive number in the work force. As an example at software industry 30% of the workforce is female. They are on par with their male counter parts in terms of wages and position at the work place.

In rural India, agriculture and allied industrial sectors employ as much as 89.5% of the total female labour. In overall farm production, women's average contribution is estimated at 55% to 66% of the total labour. According to a 1991 World Bank report, women accounted for 94% of total employment in dairy production in India. Women constitute 51% of the total employed in forest-based small-scale enterprises. One of the most famous female business success stories is the Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad .

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Last modified: Friday, 1 June 2012, 6:46 AM