Working with veil on their face, this is tragic condition for rural farm-women to work with.
Their work and leisure......
Their work and leisure......
Work or toil is necessary to sustain life and leisure provides a person with a chance to relax and recover from the stress and fatigue of everyday life. It also provides a creative outlet and an important opportunity to establish and maintain social networks. Despite the utter necessities of leisure in everybody’s life it was observed in a broader study of farmwomen’s life in Haryana that for women and girl children in rural farm families in Haryana, life means work. They toil long hours in the fields, tend domestic livestock, gather fuel wood, haul water, prepare and cook food, take care of children and manage the house. Farmwomen typically work longer hours than farm men: an average of 10 hours more each week during peak crop season in Haryana (AICRP Report: 1997).yet women’s work is not included in national income accounts. If women’s work in and around the house were monetized, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reckons their collective contribution to the world economy would easily top $4 trillion a year.
An intensive survey of 900 households in rural Haryana (AICRP Report.1985) found that when both subsistence production and market production were considered, women, despite having two-thirds less cash income then men, still contributed 15 per cent amore money to the monthly household budget. In general, men spent a disproportionate amount of income from cash crops or wages of the monthly household budget; they spend on their leisure activities, while farmwomen seldom spend on their own wants and needs.
It is my personal experience that leisure experience for Haryana rural farmwomen is gendered and culturally situated. Reason behind it is that women's activities are mostly obligatory and regulated by persistent institutions of culture, religion, and customs where their freedom of action and choice is very limited. Again they have spatial and physical restrictions on movements and their activities are primarily confined within their ghar (home), nohra (cattle shed), bada (a place to make cow-dung cakes) and khet (farm). It was noted that in rural farm families men spent a disproportionate amount of income from cash crops or wages on relative luxuries, including tobacco, liquor and leisure activities. While women restrict themselves to spend on their own leisure, may be by nature or by inherited norms.
An intensive survey of 900 households in rural Haryana (AICRP Report.1985) found that when both subsistence production and market production were considered, women, despite having two-thirds less cash income then men, still contributed 15 per cent amore money to the monthly household budget. In general, men spent a disproportionate amount of income from cash crops or wages of the monthly household budget; they spend on their leisure activities, while farmwomen seldom spend on their own wants and needs.
It is my personal experience that leisure experience for Haryana rural farmwomen is gendered and culturally situated. Reason behind it is that women's activities are mostly obligatory and regulated by persistent institutions of culture, religion, and customs where their freedom of action and choice is very limited. Again they have spatial and physical restrictions on movements and their activities are primarily confined within their ghar (home), nohra (cattle shed), bada (a place to make cow-dung cakes) and khet (farm). It was noted that in rural farm families men spent a disproportionate amount of income from cash crops or wages on relative luxuries, including tobacco, liquor and leisure activities. While women restrict themselves to spend on their own leisure, may be by nature or by inherited norms.
How of the study….
The survey was conducted under All India Coordinated Research Project of Home –Science Discipline and financed by ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and was carried out by the research team of the Department of Family Resource Management of Home Science College, CCS HAU, Hisar, Haryana. The research protocol was provided by the committee for Home science in Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).
Time use survey pattern included in the protocol does not have any social-cultural bias as the information collected refers only to how individuals, spend their time since the information is collected for all the twenty four hours and no activities is likely to be missed out, that is why we are able to extract the leisure component of rural farmwomen.
The survey has been conducted every year since 1997, and the 2000 survey was the third. Survey was carried from three geographical zones viz. zone 1 arid- zone, zone II sem- arid, and zone III dry sub-humid. Villages Shah pur and Kirtan from Hisar District (zone I) Villages Deoban and Devigarh were selected from Kaithal District (zone II); villages Mahobbatpur and Pinjokhara were selected from Ambala District (zone III). In all 900 households were selected representing the five landholding farm families (landless, small, medium and large) proportionately. For all farmwomen in the age group of 20-40 years, were selected to assess their work profile. Their leisure time activities recorded were, chatting with friends, preparation of special food items, stitching, knitting and crocheting, embroidery, dari making marketing, and kitchen gardening (activities performed by 60 percent of farm women were taken and rest of the activities such as reading, watching TV and many others were excluded due to generalization constraints), all these were listed in home activities in the protocol.
The survey was conducted under All India Coordinated Research Project of Home –Science Discipline and financed by ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and was carried out by the research team of the Department of Family Resource Management of Home Science College, CCS HAU, Hisar, Haryana. The research protocol was provided by the committee for Home science in Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).
Time use survey pattern included in the protocol does not have any social-cultural bias as the information collected refers only to how individuals, spend their time since the information is collected for all the twenty four hours and no activities is likely to be missed out, that is why we are able to extract the leisure component of rural farmwomen.
The survey has been conducted every year since 1997, and the 2000 survey was the third. Survey was carried from three geographical zones viz. zone 1 arid- zone, zone II sem- arid, and zone III dry sub-humid. Villages Shah pur and Kirtan from Hisar District (zone I) Villages Deoban and Devigarh were selected from Kaithal District (zone II); villages Mahobbatpur and Pinjokhara were selected from Ambala District (zone III). In all 900 households were selected representing the five landholding farm families (landless, small, medium and large) proportionately. For all farmwomen in the age group of 20-40 years, were selected to assess their work profile. Their leisure time activities recorded were, chatting with friends, preparation of special food items, stitching, knitting and crocheting, embroidery, dari making marketing, and kitchen gardening (activities performed by 60 percent of farm women were taken and rest of the activities such as reading, watching TV and many others were excluded due to generalization constraints), all these were listed in home activities in the protocol.
