Abstract
Given the background of insufficient literature on women’s participation in livestock raising since the 1990s, this chapter analyses rural women’s participation in livestock raising from 1993–94 to 2011–12 using Employment and Unemployment Surveys (EUS) of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). It finds that livestock raising is a crucial source of employment for rural women and employs 11% of the rural female agricultural workforce. Higher participation of the women in the Northern States and older women with no formal education brings out the regional and socio-economic variations. There is a declining trend in their participation after 2004–05. A decline in the number of bovines owned by rural households, a fall in the preference of the rural women to take up dairying and an increasing preference for income-generating activities such as tailoring emerge as few factors associated with the decline in women’s participation in livestock raising.
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Notes
- 1.
Operation Flood, a state-led programme, launched in 1970, linked milk producers throughout India by establishing milk producers’ cooperatives that procure milk and provide inputs and services. This enabled the producers to get a fair market price regularly.
- 2.
The results of NSS EUS rounds 55(1999–00) and 66 (2009–10) have not been shown here to maintain a decadal pattern in the trend. However, the trends discussed are similar to these rounds as well.
- 3.
For round 50 (1993–94), NIC code 1987 is used. Round 61 (2004–05) uses NIC code 1998 and round 68 (2011–12) uses NIC code 2008.
- 4.
Bovines include cattle and buffaloes. Ovines include sheep, goats and pigs.
- 5.
Other animals include raising horses, camels, silk worms, bee-keeping, etc.
- 6.
These women are not counted as workers in the EUS rounds.
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Vijayamba, R. (2022). Women’s Participation in Livestock Raising—Evidence from NSSO Employment and Unemployment Surveys 1993–94 to 2011–12. In: Patel, V., Mondal, N. (eds) Gendered Inequalities in Paid and Unpaid Work of Women in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9974-0_13
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