WOMEN WORKERS IN AGRICULTURE AND GENERAL HEALTH (original) (raw)

Rural women in Karnataka are extensively involved in agricultural activities. However the nature and extent of their involvement differs with the variations in agro-production systems. The mode of female participation in agricultural production varies with the land-owning status of farm household. Their roles range from managers to landless laborers. In all farm production, women's average contribution is estimated at 55% to 66% of the total labor with percentages, much higher in certain regions. In the hills and mountain region of Karnataka it is estimated that a pair of bullocks works 1064 hours, a man 1212 hours and a woman 3485 hours in a year on one hectare farm(censes report 2001), a figure that illustrates women's significant contribution to agricultural production. At the same time they are facing many health problems due to their tight schedule with the work, lack of protein food, competitive life, side effect of pesticides, chemicals, organic fertilizers etc which are used for agriculture purpose. Researcher has chosen 25 women labors of Belgaum district Athani taluka randomly and describes their health issues here. Despite of this all efforts by women in the field of agriculture, still she have not got considerable dignity in the agricultural laboring, with stigmatization of gender bias and everyone believes women’s are not enough strong physically comparing to men and also women health issues interrupting her to work hard and get good output. Researcher made effort to understand agriculture women general health issues and intervention of social work methods in order to prevent and resolve such issues collectively.