Nature and extent of rural women's participation in agricultural and non-agricultural activities (original) (raw)

Rural women in Bangladesh are involved in different works in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The present study was undertaken to determine the nature and extent of participation of rural women in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities. A sample size of 96 women labour was drawn from three villages of Mithapukur upazial (25°23′ to 25°41′N latitude and 89°06′ to 89°26′E longitude) of Rangpur district (25°17′ to 25°57′N latitude and 88°95′ to 89°32′E longitude). The findings showed that most of the respondents constitute economically active age group who were mostly illiterate. Rural women area largely took part in homestead gardening, harvesting crops, post-harvest operation, selling labour, sewing katha, 'buying daily necessities' and rice husking by dhekhi. Women were involved in various activities in order to meet basic family needs, increase family income and meet additional family requirements. The values of correlation coefficient (r) indicated that age of the respondents, amount of indebtedness of the family and family size were positively, and level of education and size of landholding are negatively associated with the participation of rural women in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities, whereas, average annual income and wage rate have no significant relationship with their participation in various activities.