Vol. 10, Special Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
Sunita Bairwa, SR Verma and K Chayal

Abstract:
Agriculture contributing more than 15 percent GDP to India economy is the biggest unorganized sector where large numbers of women are working for their livelihood. They are playing important role in most of the farm operation like land preparation, seed treatment, sowing, planting, weeding, intercultural operation, irrigation of crop, application of manures and fertilizers, protection of crop, harvesting, threshing, storage etc. Most of these tasks are tedious as well as time consuming as done manually or by traditional tools, which cause drudgery, physical & mental fatigue, monotony hardship, exploitation, pain, economic stress etc. Drudgery reduction is possible by the use of simple, scientific and appropriate drudgery reduction equipments but the use of such tools in the study area was negligible. Therefore this study was carried out in Alwar district of Rajasthan to investigate the problems and obstacles faced by farm women in the use of drudgery reduction tools. The study was conducted in two villages of one randomly selected garm panchyat from panchyat samiti Laxmangaarh. From each village, 25 farm women were selected randomly. Thus the sample of the study comprised of 50 farm women. Five drudgery reduction tools i.e. serrated sickle, wheel hoe, fertilizer broadcaster, maize sheller and kudali were selected for study. Finding shows that cost of the equipments was severe problem for majority of farm women. All most two-third farm women conformed that drudgery reducing tools take more time in use and continuous use of these tools create back pain. It was reported that sharp blade of the equipment restricts the use of tools. Rustiness of tools, getting handle loose, use of tools in clay soil was also faced either most severely or severe problem. On the same way majority of the farm women reported that wheel hoe does not remove the weeds properly. It was also concluded that Lack of labour, lack of technical knowledge, requirement of cleaning, more consumption of energy and time etc. problems were faced by a significant numbers of farm women as severe. Therefore it can be concluded that a large numbers of problems being faced by farm women so they are using these tools to a small extent.