Empowering women through water hyacinth enterprise- An impact analysis

Abstract

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), known as Pani meteka in assamese, is\ra free-floating aquatic weed found in almost every state including Assam with vast water bodies\rwhere in it causes havoc especially in the fisheries, choke lakes and provide a breeding ground\rfor mosquitoes. However, the stem of water hyacinth can be used as the raw material for making\rthe most important value added products like ladies hand bags, purse, mobile covers, file covers,\rhand fans etc. This can not only boost up the handicraft sector and the artisans but also create\remployment avenues and can also fetch good foreign exchange. In this context, a study was\rattempted to examine the participation of rural women in water hyacinth enterprises for uplifting\rthe economic status of their families with special reference to the Darrang district of Assam.\rTwo nos of localities namely- Hussain chuburi and Duni from Pachim Mangaldai development\rblock has been purposively selected on the basis of the training, demonstrations and exhibition\rconducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Darrang for the year 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. The\rprimary data were collected through questionnaires filled up through personal interview. It was\robserved that the number of rural women engaged as small entrepreneurs in water hyacinth\renterprises after training and demonstration was 9 and 8 in locality-1 and 2, respectively. It can\rbe concluded that 24 per cent, and 27 per cent of income were shared from water hyacinth\renterprises into the family’s total income from all the sources in locality 1 and locality-2,\rrespectively.