Drudgery is generally conceived as physical and mental strain, agony, monotony and
hardship experienced by human beings. While all these result in decline in living and working conditions affecting men and women alike, the plight of the woman in this regard is alarming as they continue to be constrained by illiteracy, malnutrition and unemployment. The long hours of work put in by women in fulfilling their multiple roles hardly leave any time for leisure and also have adverse affect on their health both
mental and
physical. During jhum operations women were exposed to multitude of biological, physical and mechanical hazards. The energy required in performing these tasks is more than the physical strength of women as women are in a below subsistence level of living.
Women while fulfilling their multiple roles namely, reproductive, productive and community work remain engaged long hours and perform monotonous and difficult activities which affect their mental and physical health. Moreover, different factors of drudgery embedded in jhum operations, post-harvest activities, seasonal stress, and child bearing and rearing responsibility, household chores, health hazards create lots of heavy physical exhaustion and fatigue, mental stress, agony, boredom, and malnourishment. These are the reasons for women’s low productivity and social complexity. This would require the introduction and adoption of labor saving and drudgery reducing technologies and methods to alleviate the sufferings of women in jhum cultivation and domestic works which would enable the rural women to participate more energetically and enthusiastically.
Nature of involvement of women in society
Women share abundant responsibilities to perform wide spectrum of duties both in the home and outside but their participation is considered as normal by the society. Women are extensively involved in activities related to production, processing, preparation and marketing and selling of food-grains, fruits, vegetables and fishes, dairy and other animal products. These tasks not only demand considerable time and energy but also are sources of drudgery for rural women which are not yet precisely identified and quantified. The result is that women’s needs for comfortable work participation remain neglected. The problem of women relations to physical and mental fatigue, monetary hardship, exploitation, pain, economic stress, malnutrition, unemployment/underemployment are very often encountered in the society. Almost all tribal women suffer physical drudgery in various operations in jhum. Some are as follows-
· Hard physical work in care and management, harvesting, threshing/processing, marketing and bartering of produce.
· Child bearing and rearing simultaneously.
· Sowing of crops in jhum field, to remain for a long time under rains and scorching sun.
· Harvesting by bending with traditional sickle.
· Weeding with conventional implements by hand in hot sun, rain and cold for long hours.
· Parboiling of rice by traditional arduous methods with hard physical labour.
· Dehusking/shelling, pounding, grinding of cereals and pulses by hand, etc.
· Collecting and carrying fuel over long distance.
· Fetching of water for cooking and drinking from distant place.
Drudgery level of agricultural activities as perceived by the agrarian women in paddy/jhum cultivation
Activities |
Overall drudgery status |
Reasons |
Transplanting/Planting |
Heavy |
a. Bending posture.
b. Long hour of standing in deep puddle soil.
c. Discomport on moving forward and backward in wet field.Care and skill required for uniformity in transplanting/planting. |
Threshing |
Heavy |
a. Bending posture.
b. High energy required for threshing. |
Weeding |
Moderately heavy |
a. Long hours of sitting in wet fields.
b. Requiring difficult posture in handling traditional implements.
c. Selection of weed plants from cultivated rice variety.Use of blunt and old implements. |
Cutting |
Moderately heavy |
a. Bending or sitting on toe.
b. High energy required for cutting.
c. Injuries while cutting by traditional sickle.Setting the lodge plants. |
Carrying |
Moderately heavy |
a. Difficulties in preparing bundles easy for carrying.
b. Carrying head load of bundles causing stress and strain on eyes and neck. |
Source: Proceedings of National Seminar on Drudgery Reduction for Women in Rice Cultivation, 2004. NRCWA.
Addressing the issue of women empowerment in context of rural development in general and agriculture production in particular is an important force that has the potentiality to bring quantum jump in rural economy of the country. Feminization of agriculture would surely advance through the use of drudgery reducing agricultural implements. This would help women to achieve higher production in an efficient and diversified way and ultimately giving them a better social status and recognition.