Women labour use in vegetable cultivation in Punjab -Employment status and challenges Roy Pritam1,*, Singh J.M2 1Division of Dairy Economics, Statistics and Management, NDRI, Karnal 2Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India *Corresponding author email: proy60988@gmail.com
Online Published on 26 February, 2024. Abstract Women’s contributions to agriculture have been neglected and undervalued. Keeping into account the importance of women labour in agriculture, the present study was undertaken to investigate the quantum of women labour use in major vegetables viz potato, peas and cauliflower grown in Punjab. The study was carried out in selected blocks of Jalandhar, Amritsar, and Hoshiarpur districts with a sample size of 30 vegetable growers and 20 female labour for each crop, thereby making a sample of 150 respondents. The study brought out that daily wage difference prevails between male and female labour, even the contractual wage rate is also low for female labour compared to male labour. Female labours earned mostly during picking operation in peas which was nearly Rs.10270 as compared to other operations in cauliflower and potato. However, as far as total employment is concerned, in case of cauliflower, female labours were employed the most vis-a-vis pea and potato crops. As far as constraints confronted by women labour is concerned, most of the female respondents suffered because of the seasonality of agriculture labour (91.67%) followed by dissatisfaction with the wage received (88.33%) and not having any ownership right of resources, especially land (85%).To improve the status of women labour, more employment opportunities should be created in rural areas and emphasis should be laid on their empowerment. Top Keywords Women labour, Vegetables, Wages, Constraints. Top |