A socio-economic analysis of women's participation in sericulture

Abstract

Silk is one of the most commercially and traditionally valued product in the world. It\rnot only provides livelihood but also creates employment opportunities for millions of\rpeople. Women’s income plays a dominant role for food, financial and educational\rupliftment of the rural families. Mulberry is one of the major commercial crop for\rmajority of dry land farmers in India particularly in Karnataka. This study aims to\runderstand the participation of women in sericulture and to know the problems faced\rby them. The rural women entrepreneurs engaged in Sericulture activities along with\ragriculture in old Mysore, Tumkur, Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts of Karnataka\rwere selected for the study. The respondents were randomly selected a total of 120 (30\rfrom each district) respondents. Simple statistical tools like averages and percentage\rdistribution has been used to analyse the data, in order to draw meaningful inferences\rand to facilitate comparison of the average farm situation. Majority of respondents (60\r%) are engaged in sericulture, it contributes the highest percentage (28.41 %) of the\rincome of the households, followed by service sector contributing 20.32 per cent.\rInvolvement of women is high in all activities except those activities which involve\rgoing out from their homes like collection of planting material and procurement of\rfertilizers and manure. This study indicated that 25.83 per cent of respondents started\rsericulture to do as an independent business followed by 23.33 per cent have increased\rtheir economic status, 22.50 per cent of the respondents are earning high net income\rand 19.16 per cent have felt that it is suitable for small farmers. The study indicates that\rSericulture can come out as the most vital opening, in generating women’s income in\rrural areas. Most of the women entrepreneurs involved in sericulture have minimum\reducational qualification, so government and sericulture department can organize\reffective training and development activities along with the line departments to upliftsocio-economic status of the rural women’s.