Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

GENDER ISSUES REGARDING RESPONSIBILITIES AND DIVISION OF LABOUR

• Patterns of gender division of labour are location-specific and change over time.Although the most typical pattern of gender division of labour is that women are responsible for animals kept at the homestead, there are many variations to this pattern from non-involvement in livestock to the management and herding of large stock.
• If new livestock activities are introduced, it is mainly males who decide on whether or not to participate. The intra-household division of labour then depends on household labour availability, the number and type of livestock,economic development of the household and estimated income out of the new activity. But in fact, many decisions in a family are joint decisions, although they may not be formally recognised as such (not admitted by households and communities for socio-cultural reasons).
• Studies in India reported that women perform all the day to day activities related to caring,feeding, cleaning, health and production of livestock. Theses activities performed by women may appear to involve low skill levels, they are, however,most critical to the survival, health and production of the livestock.Activities performed by men are occasional in nature, involve less time, energy and labour and largely occur in the public domain, outside the confines of the household. These are activities such as vaccinations, deworming, grazing,purchase of fodder and medicines, and taking animals to the dispensary.
• Clearly these activities involve greater mobility, access to new technology and information, greater interaction with the market and the outside world. Despite this division of work, livestock production and management continues in India to be a household activity with flexible arrangements of work between women and men. Women's access to information and training in modern livestock managementa nd dairying continues to be limited and even indirect, lowering their involvement and efficiency.
• With respect to children, gender-roles in most societies become internalised at a very young age - girls are socialised into performing roles traditionally performed by women and boys take on the roles considered appropriate for men.These internalised set of roles also influences attitudes and thinking and are carried later into life, which is why it is so difficult to change gender related issues (IFAD, 2000).