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Gender perspective on Poverty in Plantation Sector: A study in Karnataka

Saravana K
Research Scholar
&
Dr.Lokesha M.U
Assistant Professor
Department of Studies and Research in Social Work, Tumkur University

Abstract

This article is an analysis of gender perspective on poverty in plantation sector of


Karnataka state in terms of unemployment rate, higher status and higher–paying
positions. Employment has been a significant key that determines sex based gender
disparity in the state. This is focuses more on the trend in plantation settings in terms of
employment and occupational disparity and its impact on gender based poverty in the
estate sector. Along with this, it also gives historical data on plantation sector as well as
existing poverty, relating to history in Karnataka state. Researcher adopted descriptive
research design, and used structured interview schedule with purposive sampling
technique, the size sample was 111 and analyses the data with regard to employment
pattern estate, outside and self employed. The research provides statistical data that
explains the difference among male and female in the plantation sector in terms of the
efficiency and daily wage rate of field workers. The findings which show the progress of
women participation in labor force in plantation sector and the gender based poverty.

Keywords: Plantation, Workers, Women, Poverty, Gender

Introduction

Gender norms and patterns are rigid, and very often put women in disadvantaged
positions relative to men – including limiting women’s equal access to decent work. But
gender norms can and do change. Economic policies – at the macro, meso and micro
levels – can be designed in ways that are transformative and that enhance gender equity.
The ability of paid employment to expand women’s range of choices – hence
contributing to closing persistent gender gaps in labour markets and within households –
is related to the type of jobs women have access to, the level and regularity of their
earnings, the opportunities for mobilizing and organizing, and the ways in which
women’s and men’s productive and reproductive roles are coordinated and protected
through policies
Gender based deprivations and inequalities; poverty can be very debilitating and add on
to the vulnerabilities of women. Another significant issue is regarding the fact that
experiences and responses to poverty are dissimilar among men and women, due to the
gendered constraints and variations in the opportunities (Masika, et al., 1997; Razavi,
2000).

Poverty and Gender

The analysis of poverty from a gender perspective develops both concepts to help
understand a number of processes inherent to this phenomenon, its dynamics and
characteristics in specific contexts. It helps to explain why certain groups, by virtue of
their sex, are more likely to be affected by poverty. Gender dimensions of poverty often
gain significance from the notion that women constitute the poorest of the poor, being the
lowest in social and economic hierarchies. However, gender and poverty are two distinct
forms of disadvantage and therefore, collapsing them into a ‘feminisation of poverty’
notion of women as the poorest of the poor is not adequate (Jackson and Palmer – Jones,
2000), average wage rates are lower for women among the casual workers (Sundaram,
2001). Poverty affects men and women in a differentiated manner. They identified a
series of phenomena within poverty that specifically affected women and showed that
poor women outnumbered poor men, that women suffered more severe poverty than men
and that female poverty displayed a more marked tendency to increase, largely because of
the rise in the number of female -headed households. This set of phenomena came to be
termed the “feminization of poverty”. Women dedicate more time for not paid activities
than men in house. Women have longer working hours, which is harmful to their health
and nutrition. And in the employment perspective, women spent less hours performing
paid work than men, they spent more on domestic tasks and they had a longer working
day than men (Milosavljevic, 2003).

Rationale of the Study

Women workers in agriculture are more likely to be working at home. They are also more
likely to be engaged in sub-contract work on a piece-rate basis in unorganized sector.
Both these factors – their location of work and the nature of the contract arrangements –
make these women open to exploitation as workers. This large proportion of women in
home-based sub-contract work is a classic recipe for poverty. One of the main areas
where poverty is generated is among such home-based workers in the manufacturing
sector. In plantation sectors women are engaged larger than men, they have to work in
plantation as well as in home. There is no studies was found to investigate gender
poverty in plantation sector, this study investigates the poverty among female headed
household in plantation sector of Karnataka.

Material and Method

The purpose of the study was to know the economic condition of women in plantation,
and to understand the gender perspective of poverty in plantation. Researcher used
descriptive research design, in the study researcher focused that there are two kinds of
employment available in the plantation sector casual or contract labour and permanent
employment. In casual employment provides low and irregular income, lack of social
security, little regulation in work, and absence of legal protection. To meet goal of study
the researcher selected only coffee and tea cultivated area in Karnataka, i.e., Kodagu,
Chikkamagaluru and Hassan (Sakaleshapura). Researcher selected purposively only
women headed family as samples and the total size of samples is 65 based on Morgan’s
sample survey calculation with 5.0 percentage of significance level. Structured interview
schedule was adopted by the researcher and descriptive statistical analysis was used with
help of SPSS 17.0.

Results

Nature of Household

Items Response Frequency Percentage


SC 32 49.2
Category ST 16 24.6
OBC/Minorities 17 26.2
Total 65 100.0
20 to 25 2 3.1
20 to 30 5 7.7
30 to 35 16 24.6
Age
35 to 40 15 23.1
40 to 45 20 30.8
45 to Above 7 10.8
Total 65 100.0
Illiterate 14 21.5
Primary 22 33.8
Middle 12 18.5
Education Qualification
Secondary 9 13.8
PUC 7 10.8
Degree or Technical 1 1.5
Total 65 100.0
Marital Status Widow 56 86.2
Separated 9 13.8
Total 65 100.0

The above table reveals that demographic profile of female headed households’
status working plantation area. Majority of women belongs to vulnerable communities
(SC – 49.2, ST - 24.6) and the mean age of women household in plantation sector was 35.
And majority of women were obtained less education qualification and in the view of
marital status majority 86.0 percentages are widows on 13.9 percentages women were
living separately with their children. Educational attainment levels among usual principal
and subsidiary status workers reveals the clear extent of deprivation and resultant
vulnerabilities with which most poor women function within the labour markets.

Nature of employment Casual 46 70.8


Seasonal 19 29.2
Total 67 103.1
Wage Daily 17 26.2
Weekly 40 61.5
Monthly 8 12.3
65 100.0
Wage in Rs. (Daily) Rs. 150 7 10.8
Rs. 200 37 56.9
Rs. 250 17 26.2
Rs. 250 and Above 4 6.2
Total 65 100
Employment Status Available in All season 19 29.2
Only in Seasonal 43 66.2
Based on "on request" 3 4.6
Total 65 100.0

Majority of women household members were depended on seasonal employment


of plantation and majority of them (61.5 Percentage) were receiving wage in weekly
based and the average wage of women is 200 rupees and the availability of employment
in plantation only in seasonal period. The share of regular employment in plantation
sector remains very low both for women and men. The access of women to regular
employment remains at the low end. The better off sections manage to benefit from such
access to regular jobs much more than the poorer households. This leaves casual labour
as the only livelihood resort for most of the poor. It is often lamented that the
opportunities in the casual labour market are the least desirable. In the wage perspective
women were receiving less compared male labours in plantation sector.
Economic Status of women in Plantation sector of Karnataka
Variable Family Size Family income Expenditure Savings Asset Indebtedness

Family Size 1 - - - - -
Family income 0.206** 1 - - - -

Expenditure 0.53** 0.236** 1 - - -

Savings 0.169** 0.149** 0.338** 1 - -

Asset 0.042** 0.043 0.003 -0.021 1 -


Indebtedness 0.266* 0.151** 0.495** 0.056 -0.004 1

Household income is the most important component in terms of which the economic
status of the household is studied. Income of the household, size of the family,
expenditure, savings, assets, and indebtedness are the items to determent the economic
status of the women household in the plantation. In order to examine the degree of
significance among the above said variables, the correlation coefficient technique has
been adopted. It is evident from the above table that the degree of associates were quite
high at 1 percentage level of significance for the variables family size and family income
(0.2060**), family size and savings (0.1697**), family size and indebtedness (0.2664**),
income of the family and expenditure (0.2364**), income and savings of family
(0.1491**), family income and indebtedness (0.1513**), total expenditure and savings
(0.3381**), and total expenditure and indebtedness (0.4959**). The size of the house
hold is positively correlated with income of the family, total expenditure, savings and
indebtedness, the family income, i.e., the household income also positively correlated
with total expenditure, savings and indebtedness and total expenditure of the family also
positively correlated with savings and indebtedness. Women working in plantation sector
lead her family with own earnings; the gender perspective on poverty status among
women in plantation sector was examined in different perspective.

Measuring unpaid labour of women in Plantation Sector

Unpaid labour is a key concept in the analysis of poverty from a gender perspective. The
researcher gave an attention has also to the close relationship between unpaid labour and
the ways in which women become poor, and to the need to measure such labour. The
calculation of household work would also mark an important difference in household
incomes between male -headed households that have a person devoted to domestic and
care giving tasks and female -headed households without such a person, which assume
the private costs imposed by this work. It has found that majority 92.0 percentages of
female engages both paid work in plantation more in house without payment. And in
duration of working in domestic nature is higher than paid work in plantation. By
accounting for the time invested in each of these tasks, they can be made visible so that
society can appreciate them and perceive gender inequalities in the family and in society.
What is more, this time allocation serves to calculate total workload, a concept that is
inherent to both unpaid and paid labour.

Conclusion

One of the invisible major challenges in plantation sector is women poverty. Keeping
this issue in mind, the government will have to frame suitable policies to enhance the
economic status of rural poor women in particular. Government should enlarge assisting
hand to the women working as a casual or seasonal worker in plantation through welfare
boards. Study also highlights policy interventions that are require to correct the
imbalance. Steps have to be taking to create a well defined structure with which the
diverse activities of these may be performed.

Bibliography

Milosavljevic. (2003). Nicaragua’s national household survey on the measurement of living standards.
Nicarguas: ECLAC.

Sundaram, K. (2001). ‘Employment and Poverty in 1990s: Further Results from NSS 55th Round
Employment-Unemployment Survey 1999-2000. Economic and Political Weekly, 36(32), 65.

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