1

QUALITY OF LIFE AND

WOMEN WORK PARTICIPATION

OF MUSTTAFANAGAR GRAMPANCHAYAT AT KALIAGANG BLOCK OF

UTTAR DINAJPUR

Institute of development studies Kolkata

Salt lake campus, 27 d d block, sector I, salt lake

Kolkata-700064

2

A FIELD REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE

INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Kolkata

JOY KARMAKAR

M.PHIL 1st year

March, 2012

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ACKNOWLEDGE MENT

Today it is a great pleasure for me to submit my field report, which I have been completed after crossing many laborious days. But at this time it will be very discourteous in my part, if I forget to show indebtedness to some person who are deeply linked with my work.

First of all I would like to extend my heartiest gratitude to the honorable assistant professor Zakaria Sidiqui who had spent his valuable time in guiding me the proper way in every stage in preparation of this report.

I am also grateful to the assistant professor Bidhan kanti Das, Nandini Ghosh, Krishna Soman, Jenia Mukherjee and Gorkey Chokroborty whose valuable suggestion at field and the post field work are literally remarkable.

I am also grateful to the village representative without whom the survey was not possible.

I am also expressing my deep gratitude to the local people who helped me during the survey. Throughout the writing in this report, I have been supplied with valuable advice and suggestion from our teachers who always preferred to remain behind the scene.

Joy karmakar

March 2012 M.Phil first semester

Development study, IDSK

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Contents

Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………….i

List of tables……………………………………………………………………………ii

List of figures…………………………………………………………………………..iii

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1

Chapter-1……………………………………………………………………………………2-5

Women work participation at country level

Women work participation at state level

Women work participation at rural and urban area

Chapter-2…………………………………………………………………………………..6-8

Review of selected literature on women participation

Review of women participation and development programme.

Women participation and development in the context of India

Chapter-3………………………………………………………………………….9-11

Source of data

Selection of district

Selection of community development block

Selection of Gram panchayat

Selection of villages

Sample size

Method of sample selection

Qualitative methods

Software Used

Objectives

Difficulties

5

Location Map

Chapter4………………………………………………………………………………12-22

Section 1

Population characteristics

Marital status of the people

Education characteristics of village

Level of male and female education

Household basic amenities

Water supply

Sanitation facility

Drainage facility

Electricity

Source of fuel

Household assets

Livestock

Land holdings

Healthcare facilities

Credit facility

Economic livelihood of the villages………………………………………………….23-27

Section-2

Women work participation…………………………………………………….28-31

SHG participation

Two Focus group discussion

A case study on pottery making

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….

Reference…………………………………………………………………………..

Appendix………………………………………………………………………

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List of figures

Fig-1 male female work participation of some selected states………………………………………..2

Fig-2 Male and female work participation in urban and rural areas of india…………………………3

Fig-3 Male and female work participation in uttar Dinajpur…………………………………………….4

Fig-4 Male and female work participation in urban and rural areas of Uttar Dinajpur………………5

Fig-5 Population pyramid of the village…………………………………………………………………12

Fig-6 male and female distribution………………………………………………………………………12

Fig-7 Population composition……………………………………………………………………………13

Fig-8 Marital status of the people……………………………………………………………………….13

Fig-9 Level of education of different villages…………………………………………………………..14

Fig-10 No of boys and girls attending government preschool……………………………………….15

Fig-11 No of boys and girls going school from different families……………………………………..15

Fig-12 Type of house………………………………………………………………………………………16

Fig-13 Type of roof…………………………………………………………………………………………16

Fig-14 sources of water…………………………………………………………………………………….16

Fig-15 Toilet facility………………………………………………………………………………………...17

Fig-16 Type of latrine……………………………………………………………………………………..17

Fig -17 Areas of drainage waste disposal………………………………………………………………17

Fig-18 sources of fuel……………………………………………………………………………………..17

Fig-19 major sources of lighting………………………………………………………………………….18

Fig-20 Drainage facility……………………………………………………………………………………18

Fig-21 Household assets………………………………………………………………………………….18

Fig-22 Type of live stock…………………………………………………………………………………..19

Fig-23 Land holdings……………………………………………………………………………………….19

Fig-24 Type of disease villagers facing…………………………………………………………………..22

Fig-25 Delivery of child…..…………………………………………………………………………………22

Fig 26 Different sources of credit………………………………………………………………………….22

Fig-27 Net district domestic product by sectoral origin………………………………………………….24

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Fig-28 First bread earner source of income of different villages………………………………………24

Fig 29 Daily income of first bread earner…………………………………………………………………25

Fig-30 Daily income of first bread earner second sources…………………………………………..25

Fig-31 Second bread earner second source of income……………………………………………….26

Fig-32 Economic status of women of different villages………………………………………………28

Fig-33 No of female workers………………………………………………………………………………28

Fig-34 Marital status of female worker…………………………………………………………………29

Fig-35 work participation of women by different level of education……………………………….29

Fig-36 SHG and women work participation………………………………………………………….30

List of Maps

Location map of Uttar Dinajpur

Health facility map of Uttar Dinajpur

Flower growing region

Potato growing region

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List of tables

Table-1 per 1000 distribution of usual working person…………………………………………………………………4

Table-2 selected characteristics of Uttar Dinajpur……………………………………………………………………….9

Table-3 selected characteristics of block…………………………………………………………………………………9

Table-4 selected characteristics of gram panchayat……………………………………………………………………9

Table-5 level of male and female education……………………………………………………………………………..14

Table-6 level of male female education…………………………………………………………………………………..15

Table-7 % of household do not have toilet facility…………………………………………………………………….17

Table-8 individual/ family land holdings………………………………………………………………………………..19

Table-9 Mean land holdings……………………………………………………………………………………………….20

Table-10 Health care centre of Uttar Dinajpur……………………………………………………………………………21

Table-11 Income profile of different villages…………………………………………………………………………….25

Table-12 Mean income of different bread earner………………………………………………………………………..26

Table-13 Regularity of the income of the villagers………………………………………………………………………27

Table-14 Male and female work participation rate of different villages………………………………………………28

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INTRODUCTION

Uttar Dinajpur district lies between latitude 25°11' N to 26°49' N and longitude 87°49' E to 90°00' E occupying an area of 3142 km² enclosed by Panchagarh, Thakurgaon and Dinajpur districts of Bangladesh on the east, Kishanganj, Purnia and Katihar districts of Bihar on the west, Darjeeling district and Jalpaiguri district on the north and Malda district and Dakshin Dinajpur district on the south. Uttar Dinajpur is well connected with the rest of the state through National Highways, State Highways and Railways. NH-31 and NH-34 pass through the heart of the district.

PHYSICAL CHARECTERISTICS: The regional topography is generally flat with a gentle southerly slope towards which the main rivers like Kulik, Nagar, Mahananda. The District forms a part of the basin lying between Rajmahal hills on the east. The older alluvium is estimated to be Pleistocene age. Uttar Dinajpur is bestowed with a very fertile soil. The soil is very rich in nature due to the alluvial deposition which helps to grow Paddy, Jute, Mesta and Sugarcane etc. Raiganj on the banks of the River Kulik is the District Headquarters where the "Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary", the second largest bird sanctuary in Asia, is situated.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION: In Uttar Dinajpur district, there are 2 sub-divisions, Raiganj and Islampur, 110 km (68 mi) apart from each other. There are 4 Municipalities, 9 Blocks and 99 Panchayats covering 1577 villages. The total population is nearly 25 lakh (2.5 million), consisting mainly of rural masses.

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Uttar Dinajpur one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the eleven districts in West Bengal currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF). but now Dalkhola the main commercial, business town with well connected railway and roadways increasing the economy of Dalkhola and Uttar Dinajpur District.

LITERACY AND SEX RATIO: Average literacy rate of Uttar Dinajpur in 2011 were 60.13 compared to 47.89 of 2001. If things are looked out at gender wise, male and female literacy were 66.65 and 53.15 respectively. For 2001 census, same figures stood at 58.48 and 36.51 in Uttar Dinajpur District. Total literate in Uttar Dinajpur District were 1,521,933 of which male and female were 872,285 and 649,648 respectively. With regards to Sex Ratio in Uttar Dinajpur, it stood at 936 per 1000 male compared to 2001 census figure of 938. The average national sex ratio in India is 940 as per latest reports of Census 2011 Directorate.

ECONOMY: Uttar dinajpur is called as “bread basket” of West Bengal. The main crops of the district are rice and jute. Apart from agriculture government sector spinning mill has been established at Raiganj. It may point out that some small bought leaf tea garden has established at Islampur, Goalpokhar 1 and chopra.

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Chapter -1

WOMEN WORK PARTICIPATION

The word participation has a wide variety of connotations and it is used to describe a wide range of situations. Women‟s equal participation in economic, political, social and cultural life plays a pivotal role in the general process of the advancement of women. It is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy but can also be seen as a necessary condition for women‟s interests to be taken into account. Without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women‟s perspective at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace, of a country can‟t not be achieved. The overall development of a country depends upon the maximum utilization of her people, both men and women.

Participation can take different forms

direct;

representational, by selecting representatives from membership-based groups and associations;

political, through elected representatives;

Information-based, with data aggregated and reported directly or through intermediaries to local and national decision makers.

Female work participation in West Bengal is one of the lowest among all the states in India. However, it varies widely across the state‟s 341 blocks and it is also varies across rural and urban area in India. West Bengal female work participation rate is 18.1% which is just above the two states namely Kerala and Uttar Pradesh where women work participation rate is 15.3% and 16.3%. Fig 1

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Source: Census 2001

Empirical research has found that women‟s work participation is associated with many factors and these factors also vary across the rural and urban area. Female work participation is depending on age, caste, class, marital status, education and health status and often family conditions. Some of the factors are actually universal while there are some factors which are regional like caste. It is to be noted that female work participation are often associate with the women empowerment. Empowerment is a process; empowerment should manifest itself as a redistribution of power between individuals, genders, groups, classes, castes, races, ethnic groups or nations. Empowerment means the transformation of structures of subordination, through radical changes in law, property rights, control over women‟s labor and bodies, and the institutions that reinforce and perpetuate male domination ( Batliwala, 1993:5) Fig2

Source: COI 2001, Paper 3 of 2001, Annexure - 1

The female work participation in West Bengal is the lowest among the other state as we pointed out earlier it also varies between urban and rural areas within the West Bengal. It may be pointed out here that in early 90‟s female work participation in rural areas in west Bengal was comparatively higher than the female work participation in urban areas. But after the period of globalization female work participation in urban areas in west Bengal has dramatically increased while rural areas female work participation drastically decreased i.e. 2.9%. However the male work participation in rural areas of west Bengal was also higher during the decade of 1990 and even it was more than the urban areas of West Bengal. Like female work participation male work participation has also declined 5.2% in rural areas after the period of globalization.

It was earlier believed that female work participation in rural areas is higher because typically rural areas are poorer, and poorer women are more often in paid

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employment than women from better-off households where social norms and patriarchal values restrict women‟s entry into the labour market.

In rural India, labour force participation rate for women in 2004-05 was 36.6 per cent as compared to 22.3 per cent for urban women. But in recent years, the urban labour force for women is growing at a faster pace than that of rural women (for urban women from 19.7 per cent in 1999-2000, and for rural women from 34 per cent). Between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, there has been an increase in women‟s labour force participation rates, but between 1993-94 and 1999-2000, there was a decline. One explanation for this decline is provided by Sarkar (2008) who notes that this decline is largely attributed to a decline in the female subsidiary labour force, possibly discouraged or crowded out of a labour market when opportunities were few (Sarkar,2008)

The sectoral break ups of the NSS 55th round report of female work participation in west Bengal is unfolding the following things.

Table 1

Per 1000 Distribution of usually working persons in usual category taken together by Board Industry Division

NSS 55th report

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Rural

Area

Male 664 4 109 1 27 102 42 4 46

Female 541 0 361 0 4 28 0 1 66

Urban Area

Female 23 5 286 0 19 132 15 15 505

Male 32 9 252 14 72 278 131 47 165

Notes: 1. Agriculture, 2. Mining and quarrying; 3. Manufacturing; 4.Electricity, Gas and water, 5. Construction, 6.

Trade and hotels; 7.Transport; 8. Financial business; 9. Public administration and education Source; Government of India, Employment Unemployment survey report, NSSO, 55

th round, 1999-2000

It reveals the pattern of female work participation in West Bengal and it is observed that rural females do not take over the rural males in agriculture. Both in urban and rural area female dominate the manufacturing sector compare to males. Public administration and education emerges as important areas of female labour in both urban and rural area. Self employment and Casual employment has grown

tremendously compared to regular salaried employment for women. This is a country trend for

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both male and female labour.

However this trend has reinforced itself with respect to working females in the state. ((Mukhopadhyay, 2004)

Rural and urban women work participation in Uttar Dinajpur also exhibiting the fact that from 1991 to 2001 both rural and urban female work participation has increased. Interestingly the female work participation in rural area of Uttar Dinajpur

Has increased

near about three times from 1991 level but at the same

time women

work participation in rural areas of

west Bengal has

declined 2.9%. However

Fig-4, Source: Human Development Report of Uttar Dinajpur, 2010

The female work participation in urban areas has also increased near about two times from 1991 level. While at the same time the female work participation in urban areas of west Bengal has also increased 3% from 1991 to 2001. In terms of overall trends work participation of the district shows substantial long term increase of work participation especially in rural areas. Women works participation in the district has risen at a faster than that of men. In rural area women workers have virtually stepped into the shoes of men as a result of the fact that male WPRs in rural areas of Uttar Dinajpur has declined.

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CHAPTER -2

Review of selected literature on women work participation

Wright (1990) mentioned that participation is associated to empowerment, therefore, participation as empowerment is an approach in which hold complete power over and are fully in control of an institution. The participation for empowerment is usually characterized by autonomous process of mobilization for structural, social and political changes. According to Mishra (1984:88), “participation means collective and continuous efforts by the people themselves in setting goals, pooling resources together and taking actions which aim at improving their living conditions”. In development activities, the word participation is referred to power and power relationships. A participatory approach to learning should describe activities in which at least some power is shared among facilitators and learners or those who would potentially gain benefit from the activities. Participation describes power relationships that tend to “form” through “representation” to “control”. (Iqbal 2007) According to Selener (1997), there are two types of participation, namely technical and political. On one hand, participation of a technical nature can be manipulated by power holders to fulfill their own needs. Thus, it may not promote empowerment or social change. On the other hand, participation of a political nature means acquiring power and taking greater control of a situation. According to Chakrobarty and Chakrobarty(2009) age increases the probability to participate in work by women increases but at a decreasing rate and higher the level of education lower is the probability to participate in work by women. Review of women participation and development programmes:

In the early 1970‟s researchers and analysts in many countries were arriving at conclusion that absence of mass grass root participation is the main cause of failure of all the development programmes. Yet there were major shortcomings in the flurry of attention of people‟s participation, especially with regard to women. A gender based critique of development policies and programmes also began to take shape in 1970s, marked initially by the publication of Women Role in Economic Development, the influential book by Danish development analyst Esther Boserup. This critique gain force during the UN decade for women between 1975 and 1985 and was a central theme of the international women conference in Nairobi at the end of the decade. From there on, most development agencies began to incorporate the attention to women‟s needs into their programmes and projects. By the time of next global women conference in Beijing in September 1995 – and much evidence at the UN sponsored Cairo and Copenhagen summits on population and social development that precede Beijing in September 1994 and March 1995- this critique had come to define mainstream development discourses, though they are remain substantial differences in its application. Throughout this period, gender-sensitive development underwent several permutations, starting with the „welfarist’ approach usually identified Women in Development (WID) programmes and running through the ‘equity’ approach associated with the women and development (WAD), to the ‘anti-poverty’ approach of gender and development

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programmes (GAD). With the deterioration of global economy in the 1980s and the wide spread implementation of economic stabilization and structural adjustment programmes throughout the south, a variation of GAD is known as the „efficiency’ approach, has gained prominence. This puts the stress more on development than on women, and argues that all the projects are more efficient and effective where women actively participate. In era of increasingly scarce resources for development programmes and with growing recognition past development failures, this approach is growing in popularity and is frequently cited by multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank, as undergirding their current approach to development. (Connell 1995) However, an „empowerment‟ approach with roots in women‟s organization of the south, is also, gaining increasing attention, focusing not on women as strictly economic target but rather as a force for transforming social relations. In this framework, women‟s subordination is understood to be the result of both gender relations and broader political factors, such as colonial and neocolonial oppression. What is needed, in this view, is structural change in gender and class relations, as well as the economic growth. Such new thinking is reflected in the critical exploration of the relationship between economic growth and human development by the UNDP in its annual Human Development Reports. (UNDP‟s Human Development report, 1996) Women Participation and Development in the context of India:

The importance of Women's Organizations for bringing women within reach of the development process is a recognized policy for women's development in India. However In recent years, it was increasingly being felt that grassroot organizations with certain definite objectives and roles can serve as key instruments for mobilizing women to develop their economic activity in an organized manner - by ensuring access to needed development inputs and to strengthen women's voice in development decisions and in the political process. Introduction of an economic component in grassroot women's organizations is gradually emerging as a critical need not only to alleviate poverty but also to reduce exploitation of the most vulnerable groups of women workers and to stabilize the participatory and mobilizing mechanisms.(Banerjee,1984) The ongoing developmental efforts through IRDPP, ITDP, DWCRA, ANP, NREP etc. plan the creation of durable productive assets and income generating activities for the rural poor and mention women as the most vulnerable section of the target group. Most of these developmental thrusts aim at building on existing local skills and occupations and utilizing local raw materials and marketing outlets. To fortify these approaches basic instruments designed so far are cheap credit, some amount of braining in production skills and subsidized distribution of technological equipment/livestock/seeds etc. The objective of all these programmes is to make these poor households economically viable through increased opportunities for 'self-employment'. Field evaluations have, however, increasingly revealed that (a) 'self-employment for individuals or households' at this level of poverty is an impossibility because of their own limitations and structure of the rural market economy, and (b) Small assets without training in economic management of such assets only intensify the vulnerability of those households. The structural constraints are provided by inequalities and limited purchasing power of the majority of the rural population, dominant influence of urban products which depress

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the demand for locally produced goods, difficulties in getting raw materials etc. The local power elites normally the employers (often the money-lenders) are reluctant to see them acquire economic viability - as that would prevent the formers' ability to exploit their labour and need. All these problems affect women from such households even more adversely. In addition, they have to face some special constraints emanating from their familial responsibilities and their depressed status in the local community - which men do not share. (Banerjee, 1984) Strategies for improving poor rural women's access to development must, therefore, face several challenging obstacles: (i) identifying an economic activity which will be viable and within reach of the women's skills, understanding, resources and marketability; (ii) transforming the dependency of wage workers to the self-reliance of entrepreneurs and managers; (iii) finding a mechanism that can help to combat their special vulnerabilities/constraints, and to provide them basic services. Grassroot level organizations of rural women had been introduced to meet the last challenge as early as the Second Plan (Mahila Mandal, Mahila Samitis, Mahila Samajams, Mader Sangams). At that time, however, employment generation had not been seen as a priority for women, and only training taken up through these bodies was in household activities (nutrition, childcare, sewing and embroidery etc.). As a result, the organizations could not draw the rural poor women and remained confined to women of the rural elite. (Banerjee, 1984) The new perspective - of economic independence for women, coupled with the strategies for eradication of poverty gives a new dimension to the formation and development of these grassroot organizations. For the first time these are being viewed as possible instruments for employment generation and viable economic development as well as channels for socio-political development of the most oppressed and deprived section of the rural populations. (Banarjee, 1984)

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Chapter-3

Methods, Materials, Study Area and Limitation

Sources of Data:

1. Primary data has been collected from the survey of Hat para, Sapkali , Kunor,Bheur, Dharmapara, Mission Para, Dangipara belong to the Mustafanagar Grampanchayat under Kaliaganj Community Development Block

2. Secondary data has been collected from census, NSS and district Human Development report of Uttar Dinajpur and various secondary literatures. The survey was conducted on January 2012 with a specific objective of understanding the quality of life of the people, their source of income, their education, and health, their household assets, food security arrangement and credit facility. It is to be noted here that Uttar Dinajpur is one of the most underdeveloped district of West Bengal according to the Human Development Report of West Bengal 2010. Selection of the District:

The district of Uttar Dinajpur was selected because our survey‟s main objective was to understand the quality of life of the Uttar Dinajpur and the district is belonging to the one of the backward district of West Bengal. Following are important characteristics of Uttar Dinajpur. Table-2 Selected characteristics of the districts of Uttar Dinajpur: 2001

Name of district

Area In sq km

Total Population

Male Female Population Density

HDI

Uttar Dinajpur

3140 2437632 1257430 1180202 781 0.51

Source: HDI report of Uttar Dinajpur, 2010

Selection of the Community development Block:

Kaliaganj community Development Block is third largest block in terms of total area and has the second highest SC and ST population concentration of the district followed by Raiganj block. Within the block SC and ST population comprise 65% of the total population of the block. Table-3

Some selected characteristics of Kaliaganj Block: 2001 Name of the Block

Area in sq km

No of Household

Total

Population

Male Female SC population

ST population

WPR

In 1991

WPR in

2001

Kaliaganj 301.9 39222 190019 97805 92214 114922 8656 38.3 45.3

Source: census 2001, HDI report of Uttar Dinajpur, 2010

The work participation rate is the second highest in 2001 followed by Itahar among the other blocks of the district. And the working population mainly depends on agriculture. Hence it would be interesting to know the quality of life of the SC and ST population of the block.

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Selection of the Gram panchayat:

Kaliaganj has total nine Gram Panchayats and Mustafanagar is one of them. SC and ST population of the Gram Panchayat comprised 53.3% of the total population of the panchayat.

Table-4

Some Selected Characteristics of Mustafanagar Gram panchayat

Name of the GP

Area in sq km

No of household

Total population

Male Female ST and SC population

Non SC and ST population

Mustafanagar 38.32 4184 28219 14632 13587 15034 13185

Source: HDI report of Uttar Dinajpur, 2001

Selection of villages:

Selection of villages has been done sometime on the basis of exclusive economic activities like Hat para and Dharmapara. Some time ethnicity has got priority like Adibasi para locally called Mission para also. Sometime the fully agriculture dependent village has been selected.

Sample Size:

Total 300 samples have been collected by twelve surveyors from different villages. Highest number of sample has been collected from Bheur i.e.84 followed by mission para 50, Kunor 42, Hat para 38, Sapkhali 36; Dharmapara 31 and lowest is Dangipara i.e. 19.

Method of sample selection:

As the household is unit of our study therefore households has been selected on the basis of systematic random sample method. It is to be noted that in some village focus group discussion has been done through purpose full sampling.

Qualitative methods:

We have not only collected the quantitative data but also collected some qualitative data. Method of qualitative data collection involve „Focus Group Discussion‟ and sometime in depth case studies of the villagers. Focus group discussion was taken place in two places namely Hat Para and Sapkhali. FGD at Hatpara was exclusively for women and in Sapkhali both men and women were present there.

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Software used:

For data entry we have used the „CSPro‟ software and for data editing, cleaning and ordering we have used „STATA 11‟. For table and graph STATA 11 has also been used.

Objective of the Study:

Primary objective of our study is to understand the quality of life of the villagers.

It includes the education, health facility and amount of assets they possess.

To analyze the work participation rate of the villagers and especially the female work participation.

Some Difficulties of the Study:

Our survey was only for 7 days so we have to maintain time schedule.

In Adibasi para we have face the language problem.

During the seven days of our survey one or two days was really too cold and it was difficult to take interview within a open space.

Most of the people were not aware of their age and sometime it was difficult to calculate their age.

Some villagers were apprehend and initially was not ready to give interview because they thought that we are collecting information for Government Income tax department.

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LOCATION MAP

WEST BENGAL IN INDIA NORTH DINAJPUR IN WEST

BENGAL

KALIAGANJ IN NROTH DINAJPUR HAT PARA, KUNOR AND DHARMAPARA

SANSAD IN MOSTAFA NAGAR GRAMPANCHAYAT

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Chapter 4 section- A

Characteristics of household Population:

A total 300 families were surveyed in the seven villages under mustafanagar gram panchayat with total dejure population 1461 out of which male is 764 and female is 697. The average household size is 4.87 with male 2.54 and female 2.32. Sex ratio of the villages is 912 females per 1000 males. The age sex distribution of the population is given in the fig-4. The age sex pyramid of the village is clearly showing that base of the pyramid is not wide as the adult population (11-20). However in this

category some amount of child population is included. It is to be noted that in the age group of 11-20 the proportion of female population is higher than the male population. Working age (15-60) group population is about same for both the male and female population. The old age group (61-<80) has a chunk of population but interestingly here the male population is much higher than the female population. The overall feature of the pyramid is showing wide base and tapering top which is clearly exhibiting that the village has still high birth rate but at the old age category there is chunk

(Fig-5 ) of concentration of both the male and female population which suggesting the low mortality rate and improve health status than previously. Male female distribution of each village is indicating more or less same picture i.e.

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(Fig-6) male population is higher than female except in Kunor where female population is more than the male.

Population composition of the villages:

It shows that the each village has quite higher number of schedule caste population followed by general caste category population. But some villages like mission para and Dagipara have quite large number of schedule tribe population. In fact misson para or Adibasi para is dominated by schedule tribe population (73.79%). Mission para‟s general caste category population is mostly immigrant from Bangladesh. Dharma para and Bheur has large number of schedule caste population

i.e. 100% and 91% respectively. Followed by sapkhali and mission para, where schedule caste population also dominates. Other backward caste population has only been found at sapkhali.Kunor and Hat para have more or less similar population composition. However Dharmapara is only village where except SC no other population

(Fig-7) has been found. Only Dangi Para has mix category of population. Marital status of the peorple : Marital status is another imporatant charecteristics of population. Each of the seven villages has large number of married and single person. It

may point that single person includes both the male and female children. Sapkhali has the highest number of married person i.e.54.64%. widow population is also higher at Sapkhali i.e.4.92 follwed by Mission para and Bheur i.e. 4.44% and 4.37% respectively. We have also got some amount of

23

seperated or deserted population.Sapkhali has highest amount of seperated population i.e. 1.61% follwed by Hat para and Bheur where seperated population is 1.13% and 0.29% respectively.Kunor , Dharmapara and Dangipara has no such population Educational Charecteristics of the villages: literacy is one of most important factor for determining the quality of life. Rate of literacy among the seven villages is highly varyied. The highest literacy rate has been found at hat para where 80% of their total population are literate. Lowest literacy rate has been found at dharma para where 39.53 % of the peole have never been gone to school. Follwed by Dharma para, Mission para

, Sapkali and Dangipara have the lowest litercy rate. Female literacy rate is higher Hatpara

i.e.70.82. Followed by Hatpara female literacy rate is also high at kunor and Bheur also.The female literacy rate of kunor and Bheur are 69.47 and

67.78 respectively. Kunor ,Bheur ,sapkhali and Hatpara has graduate person.Only Hatpara ,Kunor and Bheur has both male and female graduate person.Dangipara and Dharmapara has no graduate person.Mission para and sapkhali has only male graduate person. Table-5 Level of male and female education in percentage

Source primary survey, 2012

male child of Hatpra are going more Angwanbadi than the female child. But the picture is completely reverse in the villages of Dangipara, and Bheur. Secondary education among the females is the highest at Hatpara(48.23) followed by Kunor (36.84%) and sapkhali (33.63).

Bheur Dangipara Dharmapara Hatpara

Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

Angwanwadi 8.04 9.44 9.8 10.42 13.16 10.81 16.67 3.53

Primary 19.64 14 19.68 20.83 13.16 21.62 21.11 14.12

Secondary 46.43 32 27.45 29.17 28.05 28.38 40 48.23

HS 7.59 2.78 5.88 0 3.95 1.35 7.76 3.53

Graduate 1.79 1.1 0 0 0 0 3.33 1.18

Never been to school

16.52 32.22 27.45 39.58 40.79 37.84 11.11 29.18

24

Level of male and female education in percentage Table-6

Mission para Sapkhali Kunor

Male Female Male Female Male Female

Angwanwadi 7.81 6.72 4.3 6.9 13.19 12.63

Primary 17.19 15.97 12.9 12.64 21.97 17.74

Secondary 36.72 33.61 48.39 33.63 35.67 36.84

HS 5.47 1.68 6.45 1.15 3.3 4.21

Graduate 1.56 0 1.08 0 3.3 1.05

Illiterate 31.25 42.02 26.88 43.69 23.08 30.53

Source: primary survey

Out of 697 female population 156 girl child going to school where as out of 764 male population only 166 boys going to school. Out of 300 household only 281 household has children and out of which only 20 households children are not attending school. Children taking tuition are about 56.83%. The school where the children are generally going like Tarangapur primary and Higher secondary school. However Hatpara has a primary school run by government of west Bengal. Kunor has a primary school run by the Bharat seva ashram. This school has a programme to take special care of

the scheduled tribe children mainly boys. Dharmapara has only one sishu siksha Kendra. Kunor has one Higher secondary school called Kalicharan HS school and one school name Kunor nimno buniadi school. No of boys and girls attending preschool are more or less same that suggest that suggest that both boys and girls are getting equal importance from their family.

r

25

Provision of Households Basic

aminities

Type of house and roof:

Out of seven villages we have found that most of the house are Kacha mainly build by earthen material.Dangipara and Dharmapara have no paka house. Highest number of paka house has been found in Bheur (19.05%) follwed by hatpara i.e. 10.53%. highest

number of kacha house has been found at Dharmapara i.e.90.32%. Kunor has the highest number of semi-paka house i.e. Fig-12 26.19%.

Roofs of the houses are generally four category namely tin, thached, tile and asbestos, Tin is the dominant material of roof of each village. Follwed by tin thached roofs dominate. Concrete roofs has been found in some the villages like Hat para and Bheur. It may be pointed out that asbestos has significant invasion of some villages like bheur where significantly 7.14

% house roof is made of

asbestos.Water and Sanitation Facilities:

Most household of the villages used private handpump. However there is great varity of ownership of the hand pump. It may be noted that in Mission para village we

Fig 10 No of boys and girls attending government pre school

It is important to know that girls and boys are coming from different family and as the villages are mostly agricultural village therefore most of the boys and girls are coming from the family where the first bread earner source of income is farming. Next to farming actually boys and girls going to school from labour family who are mainly agricultural labourer. Boys and girls from going to the school from husbandry family is the lowest. Fig 11

26

have found that govt hand pump has been used privately. Where as in dharmapara due to the lack of availablity of tap or hand pump they have form a group and buy a hand pump for their own use. The supply of government hand pump is very few. Government hand pump is generally located near the house of the panchayat member. This has been found at Hat para.

Awareness of sanitation propgramme has not yet percolated to these villages because most of the household do not have their toilet.

However, those who have toilet facility they mostly use septic tank follwed by pit latrine. Only few household has temporary latrine. Significantly in we have found that no single household of Dharmapara have toilet facilty.only kunor has

comparatively better toilet facility. Followed by dharmapara Sapkhali, Dangipara have also do not have proper toilet facility. Follwing table showing the viilage where do not have toilet facility.

Table -7 Percentage of household do not have household toilet facility

Source primary data

Garbage Disposal, source of fuel and lighting: As we know that village have ecologically balanced garbage disposal system. It has been found that most of the households of these village generally dispose their household garbage at the nearby field.Apart from that Mission para have spcial kind of garbage disposal system. They dig a pit at the corner of their premise of the household and dispose garbage after filling the pit by

Name of Village

Dharmapara Sapkhali Dangipara Mission para

Hat para Kunor Bheur

% of household

100 94.44 89.47 78 73.68 66.67 82.14

27

garbage they covered the pit by the thin cover of soil that actully decompose the garbage and transformed it into soil.

Fig17

Source of Fuel: Two dominent type of fuel is fire wood chip and dungcake.locally they called the dungcake as “Gotha” and “Lodha” fig-17

They use dungcake with special way. They use a jute stick in which they put the dungcake in the shape of ball and keep it vertically so that it can easily be dried. The

probable reason of using such method is lack of common wall in the village. Although they get weekly Keroscene from ration shop but they do not use keroscene as fuel for cook.

Two kind of medium they used for source of lighting. both keroscene and electrcity have nearly equal importance as major source of lighting. Hat para has the highest number (89.47) of household

which have electricity connection followed by Bheur where 58.33% household have electricty connection. Fig-19

Drainage facility: Very few household has drainage system.They use the open kacha type of drainage to dispose their household water. The household which have a open paka drainage which initially starts from their household and later meet the field. Fig- 19

Household assets: we have been enlisted the numerous types of household assets. Among them mobile phone and Bycyle are very common assets to every household. Followed by plough and television has also found significant in number. The dominance of Television and mobile as a household assets is suggesting that these villages have well communication system. Cable connection through dish tv has been found very domminantly at hat para and mission para. Spread of television has

28

0

500

1,0

00

1,5

00

HO

W M

UC

H L

AN

D O

WN

ED

IN

TO

TA

L

Distribution of land holdings

been reduced the influence of radio at the household of these villages.

Fig-21

Cow, hen and goat are common livestock of the villages. However some villages keep pig as livestock like Adibasipara or Mission Para. There is a special system exchange of livestock called “Adhi” means half. Through this system a person can lend his/ her livestock to the other villagers and lender can keep it until the wish of the owner. Now why lender will keep it because such exchange can take place only when the livestock is pregnant and can birth another calf and that calf will get

the lender in return of the labour he has given

.

Fig-22

Land holdings: Personal landholdings of a villagers ranges from 0.132 acre to 15 acres. Landholding varies across the villages and most of the lands are

fragmented. We have found that in Bheur a person has more than 15 acres of land. Village wise distribution of landholdings clearly indicates the fact most of the villagers have less than one acres of land. Following table is showing the village wise distribution of land holdings.

Fig-23

Table-8 Village wise individual/ Family landholding

Amount of land

Hat Para

Mission Para

Sapkhali Kunor Dangi Para

Bheur Dharmapara

Less than 1

20 25 6 15 8 32 9

29

acre

1-2 acre 4 8 5 2 6 10 2

<2 acre 1 1 3 04 7 10 0

Source primary data

Table-4a Mean land holdings

Variable Observation Mean(decimal) Std Dev Minimum Maximum

Land holdings 173 122.54 155.94 8 1584

Source Primary data

.Health facilities

Uttar dinajpur is having the following health centre.

30

Hospital 1

Primary Health Centre 9

SHC 21

Homeopathic centre 1

Medical Units 1

Ayurvedic Units 1

Source secondary data

Kaliaganj has one primary health centre which is located at the Kunor. The community development block has also one sub centre. The seven villages we have surveyed, the villagers normally visit the Kunor primary health centre. 11.81% villagers from different villages have visited the Kunor primary health centre for last six month. Near about 40% villagers have visited the sub centre for last six month due to the different disease. In spite of the availability of modern health care facility 37.01% villagers have still visited the local for last six months due to different disease. Apart from that they also visit Raiganj District hospital, Mission (Mother Terrasa) Hospital and Taranagar Hospital.

Type of disease: The prevalent diseases are fever, cold and cough, tuberculosis and stomach ailments.

Regarding the awareness of diseases, like AIDS and Malaria, only 20% and 59% of the villagers are aware of these two diseases respectively.

Child delivery: villagers generally prefer for child delivery at home by Dai.

However Dai of the each village have received a medical training from government of west Bengal. For rapid access of the hospital for pregnant women there is

Ambulance service called “Nischoyee Jan”.

Family planning programme and janani suraksha yojana programme only Knows Fig-24

31

45% and 55% of the villagers respectively.

Although pregnant women have claimed that they never received such kind of facility. They got free tetanus and iron tablet facility from kunor primary health centre.

Credit facility: credit facility has been changed dramatically. They have now different source of lending money. Bandhan has in fact occupied the credit market of the village. Not only Bandhan SHG has also performed well in giving the credit. Despite such initiative still majority of people borrow money from their friends and relatives. It is because they get it very easily and without any mortgage. SHG like swarno jayani has been form to generate more credit among the villagers.

Fig-26

32

Economic livelihoods:

As we earlier mentioned that Uttar Dinajpur is basically an agriculture based district. The major crops and the vegetables of the district are Aus paddy, Aman paddy, Boro paddy, jute, wheat, mustered, potato, chilly, tomato, Ginger, sugarcane etc. At Kaliaganj there are some agriculture based industries like Loknath spice

powder industry, Saha industry for turmeric powders etc. The district has immense potential regarding the development of agro based industry because the district produces potato, tomato, chilly which has special commercial value than the other crops. Tulai panja rice is a special kind of paddy which only grows in Uttar Dinajpur. Our survey has found most of the villages mainly depend on agriculture but there are few villages which have special place of handicraft. Dhokra making are more or less common to the every village. However Pottery making in some village have special place which other villages have not. Hat para is kind of village

Map-3 indicating flower growing region

Where, people normally earn more money from exclusive pottery making rather than agriculture. Following small scale industry has been found from the seven villages.

Plywood industry is located at Mustafanagar. Five saw mills has also found one at mustafanagar, tarangapur, hat kaliaganj, kunor and sapkhali. There is a plenty of rice mill at kunor. Tarangapur and Hatkaliaganj have one rice mill of each area. Raja brick kiln is also located at Hat kaliaganj. Map-4 potato growing region

As the region grows well amount potato and tomato and jute hence the region has a very good potentiality of agro based industry. Although there are certain limitations like lack of infrastructure to established an agro based industry. The sectoral origin

33

of net domestic product is clearly suggesting that the secondary sector is growing but very sluggishly compared to the tertiary and primary sector. Tertiary sector of the district has been growing very rapidly. In case of primary sector it was initially stagnant but later it after few years it once again growing very rapidly.

Occupational pattern of

villages: As we earlier mentioned that villages are mainly agriculture dependent albeit there are some villages where people mainly depend on the other kind of self employment. Following proportional diagram are represented the variation of the occupational pattern of the different villages.

Fig- 22 It is evident that these proportional circles are explicitly indicating that most of the villages are depend on agriculture. Each three village has large chunk of agriculture labour except Dangi para where majority of the villagers have

(Fig-23 and 24) their own land and apart from that both Bheur and kunor have quite number of non agricultural labour. Each village few people involved in husbandry, business and self-employmed handicraft activities. People of Dharma Para are mainly

engaged as labour on someone else field. On the

contarary, Bheur, kunor and Dangi Para have large number of farmer. It may be pointed out

34

0

1,0

00

2,0

00

3,0

00

4,0

00

5,0

00

earn

ing in

rupees

Daily income of the first bread earner

0

500

1,00

01,

500

2,00

0

WH

AT

IS T

HE

AV

ER

AG

E D

AIL

Y E

AR

NIN

G R

EC

EIV

ED

FR

OM

SE

CO

ND

SO

UR

CE

here that except Dangi Para

People of the other three villages engaged in more diverse occupational pattern. (Fig-25 and 26)

Table-11

Income profile of different villages

Average daily income in rupee

Bheur Dangi Para

Dharma Para

Mission Para

Kunor Hat Para Sapkhali

N No of persons (earning s of first bread earner)

Less than 100

23 1 23 11 9 3 35

101-200 62 10 34 6 11 6 21

More than 200

25 3 3 0 16 0 5

Earnings of second bread earners

Less than 100

19 2 11 5 17 5 10

101-200 28 3 6 8 3 4 20

More than 200

7 0 0 0 9 0 1

Primary data

Income profile: From the income profile and also from the box plot diagram it is undoubtedly evident that most of the villagers average daily earnings are about 100 to 200. Or some time less than 100 rupees. It is because of the fact that most of the villagers are actually involved as worker on someone else field. The average daily wage of an agricultural labour is 120 rupees without

(Fig-29 and 30) launch for men.

And 100 rupees for women without launch. 20 rupees is subtracts if launch is given to the labour both men and women. However those who involved in farming they earned money after three

35

050

100

150

200

250

WH

AT

IS T

HE

AV

ER

AG

E D

AIL

Y E

AR

NIN

G R

EC

EIV

ED

FR

OM

SE

CO

ND

SO

UR

CE

second bread earner second source of income

month some time after two months. An estimate suggest that from one bigha land they produce maximum 600 kg rice and minimum 400 kg this sort of variation of

production depends on the selection of the seeds fertility of the soil and use of chemical fertilizers. They normally sell the rice at the price of rupees 8 per kg. It may be pointed out here that some villagers even earn 30000 thousand rupees at the interval of 2 and three months. Second bread earner second source of income usually concentrate around the rupees of 80 which is median income.

Following table is showing the mean income of the villages of the different bread earners of the different sources.

Table-12 Mean income of the different bread earners

First bread earner

Observation Mean income Standard deviation

Minimum Maximum

First source 173 159.90 151.99 2 1500

Second source

110 118.57 185.88 7 2000

Third source 41 182.1463 457.17 1 3000

Second bread earner

First source 152 332.70 2435.06 2 30000

Second source

44 80 54.54 2 240

Third source 5 60 64.34 2 140

Third bread earner

First source 57 206.52 652.017 2 5000

36

Regularity of income:

Regarding the question of regularity of income most of the villagers earn money on daily basis. Following table is exhibiting the income regularity of the villages.

Table-13 Regularity of income of villagers

Regularity First bread earner first source of income ( No of person)

Second bread earner first source of income ( No of person)

Daily 108 84

Weekly 30 21

Monthly 45 21

Seasonally 91 52

Irregular 13 26

Others 10 4

First bread earner second source of income ( No of person)

Second bread earner second source of income ( No of person)

Daily 36 12

Weekly 22 12

Monthly 8 3

Seasonally 53 12

Irregular 40 21

Others 12 6

Source primary data

Second source

10 96.20 63.95 2 235

Third source 2 60 84.85 0 120

37

Section-2

Women work Participation:

As we earlier mentioned that women work participation in Uttar Dinajpur is rapidly increasing. However the rural female work participation is much higher than the urban female work participation. The work participation rates of the different villages are as follows. Table-14

Total Work participation rate

Female work participation rate

Male work participation rate

Bheur 61.82 40.67 75.84

Dangi Para 60.71 30.76 86.66

Dharma Para 78.12 64.28 88.88

Kunor 62.22 39.13 86.63

Sapkhali 67.93 49.09 81.53

Hat Para 59.32 32.75 85.00

Mission Para 57.30 35 75.51

Source: primary data

Total work participation rate is higher at Dharma Para where most of worker are labour on else field. Followed by Dharma Para total work participation rate is higher at Sapkhali, Kunor and Bheur. Female work participation rate is also notable at Dharma Para where more than 60% of the female are working. In case of Dangi Para it was found that female work participation is very low compared to the male work participation which is 86.66%.

It is apparent that female work participation is determined by several social and cultural and even biological factors. Such factors include age, marital status,

education, caste and relation to the household head. Economic status of women of different villages designate that each village have substantial women worker albeit the no of housewife who have not worked is also higher than working population.

38

Student status is also good that signify the potentiality of higher female literacy and educated labour.

Age structure of women working population has revealed the fact that 15 to 60 years of the age group is the prime time for working although most of the women working at the age group between 31 to 45 across the all villages. It is very significant that out of 7 villages 3 villages have female child labour namely Hat Para, Mission Para and Bheur.

Marital status often determines the working status of women especially in rural areas. “It was earlier believed that female work participation in rural areas

is higher because typically rural areas are poorer, and poorer women are more often in paid employment than women from better-off households where social norms and patriarchal values restrict women‟s entry into the labour market.”(Sarkar, 2008) Now it can be said that still the aforesaid concept that manifest that female work participation in rural areas is higher because typically rural areas are poorer, and poorer women are more often in paid employment. Because, we have found that across the seven villages married women

are mainly working. Fig -

The relationship between women‟s education and labour force Participation is not straightforward. In India, women are present in large numbers among the „labouring poor‟ (i.e. employed according to official definition but living below the poverty line), who are mostly illiterate or have very low level

39

of education. (Chakroborty and Chakroborty, 2008)

Such relationship is very common and we have also found that illiterate women occupying the substantial portion of the labour force. Primary education and female work force have also a relation. Therefore we can say that education and women work participation have an inverse relationship. The wage rate of women is different from the men and type of work is also segregated from men. “In agriculture, particularly in rice-growing areas, women have been engaged in a number of operations in which males do not enjoy any particular advantage or social privilege. A kind of activity-wise segregation in agriculture has thus developed that partly legitimizes the wage gaps between men and women. In contrast to the vast number of working women who have little formal education, the educated women show a relatively low participation in the labour force.” (Chakroborty and Chakroborty, 2008)

SHG and Women participation:

Self help group of uttar Dinaj pur can be categorized into two types one is Mahila dal and another is SGSY. Funding agency is normally nationlaised bank, cooperative bank or gram panchayat. Meeting of SHG take place by either weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Such institution helps women to invest on micro enterprises.

40

Livelihood related quality of life: focus group discussion at Hatpara, Kaliaganj

Uttar Dinajpur

January, 2012

By Joy karmakar

Participant characteristics:

Ten individuals (Kalayani Roy, Doli Roy, Chaya Roy, Mira Roy, Taramoni Roy, Nabani Roy, Badari Roy, Nirabala Roy, Swaraswati Mahato, Sagarika Roy) participated in the focus group conducted at the Hat para ICDS centre with the help of Parbati Chakrobarty, attendant of the centre on Tuesday, January 10th, from 12:00pm until 1:45pm. The group included only ten females and there was no male participant. Most of the participant’s age ranged from 25 to 37. However there was no female aged person present. Out of the ten female participants nine members are involved in designed pottery making except one member is not involved in designed pottery making. It is because she belongs to Mahato family which was clearly mentioned by the other member of focus group. Focus Group Protocol The focus group covered the livelihood issues of the village. Role of women in both pottery making and in agriculture was also discussed. Division of labour has also been taken into consideration. Complete story of designed pottery making right from the collection of soil to selling the finished product was also heard. Some other important issues like credit facilities and health related problem and issues associated with the education has also been deeply discussed. Participants and their livelihood activity Most of the participants involved in designed pottery making and agriculture. However agriculture is the most vital for their livelihood for most of the household. Although there are some exclusive families who do not posses any agricultural lands hence, they are exclusively depending on the pottery making. They admitted that as they get substantive rice and other vegetables from the field so they earned extra benefit along with designing pottery making. Agriculture and its impact Hatpara has total 183 households almost every household is engaged in agricultural activities. Most of them have their own land very few families work on someone else’s field. They mostly prefer to cultivate the rice. It may be pointed out that “Tulaipanji” is the indigenous variety of rice. It’s like “basumati” in Uttar Dinajpur. They prefer to cultivate Boro and “desi swarno”, instead of “Tulaipanji”, because it gives maximum yields. Therefore they can sell the excessrice and earn extra earning. In agriculture the division of labour between men and women is very clear. Women are mostly engaged in light works in agriculture like sowing, cutting the grain etc. Men are generally ploughed and spread the chemical fertilizer, pesticides etc. There is an implicit system of division of labour between men and women. Men prefer to do skilled and laborious work. However there is no conflict regarding this kind of division rather they told us

41

that they shared a mutual cooperation between themselves. Mustard and Jute are the other important crops they usually prefer to cultivate other than rice. However grams are also cultivated within this time to regain soil fertility as it was in the initial period. During the period of plough men are more engaged in agriculture than pottery making because they believed agriculture is the foremost important task to them. Pottery making and some apprehension of rivalry They have a successful story of pottery making in terms of designed pottery. Their product popularly known as “Kunor’s earthen product” like they claimed. They believed that their work is like “Bankuras burnt horse and Krisnanagars earthen product”. Success story of designed pottery making started near about 4 to 5 years ago. They got even first prize from the Government of West Bengal. They are making pottery for many years but exclusive designed ones have been learnt only few years back. They collect the soil from a particular “Bill” a colloquial term which is actually big water body. They collect soil from the “Bill” without any payment just because everybody has few lands within the so called territory of the “Bill”. Both men and women participate to bring the soil from the “Bill” to their house. They bring it either by van or by walking keep it in a big basket and put the basket on their head. Most of them prefer the second way as they claimed during the discussion. As a result of this they are getting free raw material without any initial investment. Later they mix it with water to make it soft and then they make the particular pot after making it they dried it by the sun ray and finally they put the dried thing in the “Bhatti” i.e. Oven. According to them right from beginning to the end there is no clear cut division of labour, although designing part are generally made by the women and the pot is made by men. Now, the demand of this particular handicraft is normally high during the winter season because at that time they can attend the various fairs organized across West Bengal. DIC has a major role in deciding and sending them to the various fairs. Each family can go to two fairs in each year. But it does not always happen that each and every family can go to the different fairs. They admitted the fact that only few families can attend the fair and they actually sell it either at the nearer “hat” or the persons who are likely to go to the fair. Actually, two women out of ten women are able to come to Kolkata and Siliguri during the fair. There is a system in going to the fair: women generally go first and then after few days men go to the fair. The logic behind the system is that when they are going they are in a group so there will be no problem for the women but after few days if the product has more demand, men can bring the extra piece of work to the fair. They go to fair normally in Kolkata, Siliguri, Medinipur, Bolpur etc. Regarding price of the product, they have informed us that price is determined by them. They call a meeting first day of selling and determine the price of the product and also determine the maximum and the minimum price they can take from the customers. They make the products like flower vase, lamp stand, cup, plate, “Dhunochi”, “Pancha pradip”, dish, and tumbler. The story does not end here. There is rivalry or rather say apprehension among them regarding the unique skill they have. The fact that some family members of Pal para and Purba Kunor are willing to learn the unique method of design but the members of Hat para believe that if the

42

others get any learning opportunity their work will no longer be considered as unique piece of work. In spite of economic apprehension there is story of political affiliation. Season calendar on labour utilization in Hat para

Pottery making

peak season

Peak season

Paddy sowing paddy cutting Paddy sowing paddy cutting

Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Credit facilities

They have good access to credit facility like they can borrow money from different institutional and non institutional sources. They have a self help group called swarno jayanti group. They deposit thirty rupees each month therefore; they can get some loan from their group. Some participants have taken some money from the group and they have already paid the amount as they claimed. Bandhan is one of the major groups that facilitate the credit to most of the people in group manner. One participant admitted that she took loan from Bandhan and invests it in different way like she took twenty thousand rupees and she invests some money in the pottery making and some money in buying gold ornaments. The Bandhan group takes interest at the rate of 2.25% per week. According to them it’s very high but they are taking loan from Bandhan because they get quickly and timely which is not possible from bank. They are very much aware of the fact that if they are unable to pay the loan they have to lose their property. Hence they decided if someone is unable to pay some installment then the other group members help the person to get rid of initial trap.

Other issues

activityy

43

Most of them claimed that they regularly (weekly) visit the ration shop and collect the kerosene. But those who have the BPL card can have access of low price rice, wheat and sugar including kerosene also. The amount of Kerosene they receive is not substantial. They also admitted the fact that BPL card has not yet been given to them.

Regarding the health facility they normally go to the Kunor sub centre which is located near the Hatpara sansad. But if they face serious health problem they prefer to go the Raiganj, Kaliaganj and even Siliguri hospital.

44

Livelihood related quality of life focus group discussion at Sapkali, Kaliaganj

Uttar Dinajpur

January, 2012

By Joy karmakar

Participant charecteristics:

Eleven individuals (Pradip Gowswami, Tufan Debsharma, Naren sarkar, Sudhan Debsharma, subinoy Debsharma, Pradip Debsharma, Bajaru Debsharma, Kamal Sarkar, Swapan Paul, Ramprasad Debsharma, Param Debshrama) participated in the focus group conducted at the “Dhurmuj” club at Sapkali with the help of Sudhan Debsharma, a club member. However, women participant was also came later. It was organized on Thurs days, January 12th, from 2:00pm until 3:15pm. The group included both men and women. Most of the participant ages range from 25 to 55.Most of the male participant is engaged in agriculture. Some women participants were the member of swarna jayanti group i.e. a self help group. This SHG is actively involved in organic manure making by producing earth worm.

Focus Group main issues The focus group covered the livelihood issues of the village in terms organic manure making and agriculture. Role of men in agriculture was discussed and their cooperative role in making the organic manure with the women also unfolded. Type and form of labour has also taken into consideration.. Some other important issues like credit facilities and health related problem and issues associated with the education has also been deeply discussed. Livelihood activity of the Participant

Almost all the participant depends on agriculture for maintaining their livelihood. There is still prevalent of caste based occupation like those who belong to the “Vaishya” are mainly trader. “Paul” always makes earthen material. Women groups are involved in organic manure making and generating capital for their own benefits through credit system.

Nature of Contract of Land, Animal and Labour

Lands are given lease for cultivated. Cash is taken to lease the land. But the owner of the land gets return it only when he is able to pay the initial amount of money that received earlier. Labours are hired normally daily basis and payment is given daily at the rate of 120 rupees without the lunch. But when the daily wage is 100 rupees that mean he/she will get lunch with the wage. Women daily labours get only 100 rupees without lunch and if they take lunch their daily wage will be 80 rupees.

45

Animals are exchanged on the basis of “Adhi” system. Suppose someone has a cow he can lend the cow to his neighbors without any remuneration. The neighbor can maintain the cow and in return he will get the cubs. After getting cub he has to return the cow to its former owner.

Market place

The important markets are Kunor, Dhumkol and Fatapur where they generally sell their paddy. This markets are weekly market and very important to women also because they can sell “Dhokra” i.e. a jute mat.

Swarnojayanti group and their activities

It is already told that this group is a self help group. They make organic manure with the help of CADC. They categorically stated the fact that to make 1 quintal manure they expend near about 600 rupees. 2000 rupees invest to buy the cow dung and they sell it at the rate of 3300 rupees. This group also looks after the pregnant women of the village. Their group has been formed on2004. They lend money to the purpose of Dhokra making, and others.

Health

They normally go to local quacks when they fall ill. According to them sub centre is not always open .out of seven days four day it is closed. They alleged that hospital doctors do not visit the hospital rather they visit the other places.

Education

Village primary school is not up to the mark according to them that’s why their children are not getting proper education. Some of the participants are against of the government mid day meal programme. They believe that due to this programme children can’t concentrate on their study. They even made a comment regarding the promotion and detain of class. They are very against of lifting the system of promotion and detain of class.

46

Women participation in “designed” pottery making--- case studies

Joy karmakar

This case study of women’s participation in designed pottery making at Hat para will unfold how their family is hugely benefitted from this work. How their life has been changed due to their exclusive designing ability. It would reveal how the pottery making business makes the women self sufficient and even confident about their role in earning.

Participation is nothing but a way of maintaining the fabric of social life. People have always participated in the development of their own livelihood strategies and cultures. People’s participation irrespective of gender are now become the mantras of development. The term participation can be categorized into seven types that range from manipulative to passive participation. “Simply encouraging the local people to sell their labour in return for food, cash, and materials only creates dependencies. It may give an impression that local people support an externally driven initiatives but the impact rarely persists once the projects”. (Bunch, 1983; Reij, 1988; Pretty and Shah, 1994; Pretty, 1995)

We unfold here a sketch of the life process of two women from Hat para villages of Mustafanagar gram panchayat in North Dinajpur district. It is based on direct observation and close interaction with the people of that particular village.

Minoti Roy, 35 year old women of the schedule caste community works with her husband at their house. She has two children one boy and one girl. Both of them are also engaged in pottery making when they remain free. They are student of class ten (son) and seven (daughter). As her both the children and husband go daily school and field respectively at the morning, she remains busy to prepare food for them. After the preparation of food she normally joins the designed pottery making and does it up to 1.30 pm or 2 pm. After launch she again joins the pottery making and she involves in this work up to the evening. But it was not always like this in the past. When she came here as wife she was not able to make anything. But after close watching and helping her husband actually she learned so much. Their economic condition was not so well off before 6-7 years ago in spite they have had land and side by side they make pottery. What changes their life is in fact the “exclusive design” that they make on their pottery. Now they have the access of different market all around the West Bengal. According to her as they makes exclusive designed pottery so they have the get the wide range of markets. Before 6-7 years ago they normally went to the Kunor hat and Dhumkal hat to sell their normal pottery. It was not all profitable. Now she is the member of swarnojayanti self help group from which she generally takes loan for investing more on the designed pottery making business. She has even savings bank account and purchased a piece of land by taking loan from SHG. During the winter she remains very much busy to make the pottery. Her participation does not

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end within the household she goes first to the fair to sell their exclusive product and there after her husband come to fair with extra piece of work. According to her she is very fortunate because she is able to visit both Kolkata and Siliguri which the other women of the village don’t. She got training of designing on pottery and got 1500 rupees by which she actually able purchased a piece of gold with adding some money from her husband to secure her daughters marriage in future. She has been able to take electric connection due their extra earnings from fair. Her mother in law always tells her to join the work for maintaining good quality of life. This is a success story of Minoti Roy.

Nirmola Roy 60 year old of schedule caste community works with her old husband. She has three sons and two daughters. Her two daughters have already married and her both the sons actually left them and so they live singly. She remarked that “un to death she has to work for herself”. She believes that she has lots of energy to live. She got the training for four month. Now she is able to make designed pottery. Her husband normally engaged with his agricultural land. Henceforth, she looks after the whole pottery making business. She is not able to go the Kolkata or even siliguri and other markets so she sells her products to those people who go to Kolkata or other markets for sell their own product. Otherwise she herself goes to kunor hat to sell her product. She does each and every detail of the pottery making. She carries the soil from the Bill on his head and takes it to home which is near about 500 meters. She was telling me that she is doing all this for his grandsons and daughter. She has manages to open a bank account and she deposits some amount of money regularly. She is now also the member of swarnojayanti self help group.

It is evident from both the stories that women has a major role in pottery making and this work actually make them self confident. This is clearly an active participation however there is bit presence of functional participation also.

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Conclusion: quality of life is a broad term and women‟s work participation fall within the spec term of the quality of life. The paper has been discussed the some issues of quality of life and some aspects of women work participation. Population structure of a region often silently expresses some major characteristics of society. Population Pyramid of the villages indicating the fact that the villages have both male and female high working group population and above 60 years age there is a substantial amount of population which suggesting the genuine increase of life expectancy of the villagers. Literacy rate of villagers are still not well but the enrollment both male and female children are very high. Female education awareness is remarkable. Villagers normally go to kunor primary health centre for their treatment and there is another sub centre which is also preferable to the villagers. For serious illness they usually visit the Raiganj Sadar Hospital. For pregnant women they have received a ambulence facility called „Nischoyee Jan‟. All the villages are revenue village and revenue come from agriculture. However there are some village like Hat Para they not only depend on agriculture but also pottery making. It is same for also the Dharma Para. Wage rate among the men and women varies significantly. Main staple food of the village is rice and as most the land is being productive they cultivate multiple crops. Women work participation also varies across the age, marital status, education also. Most of the married women are worker across the seven villages. It is true that in rural areas women work participation is decrease with the higher education.

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Reference

Bagchi, J. (Ed 2004). The changing status of women in West Bengal, 1997-2000, Sage Publication, New Delhi

Campbell, R, D., (2006). Development with women, Rawat Publication, New Delhi.

. Greenberg, E, M. (2001) strengthening women‟s participation in decision making at local level, a women development technical assistance project

Human development Report of Uttar Dinajpur, 2010

Iqbal, M. (2007) concept and implementation of participation and empowerment- reflection from coffee IPM-SECP.

. Khan, R.and Ara,F (2006) women participation and empowerment in local government, VOL 29 NO 1, Asian Affairs.

Internet access

www.dfasuomi.stakes.fi/NR/rdonlyres. accessed 3/2/2012 time 10.40

www.edrb.org/journal accessed 3/2/2012

www.ilo.org accessed 3/2/2012

www.macroscan.org accessed 3/2/2012

www.usaid.gov.in accessed 3/2/2012

www.uttardinajpur.nic.in accessed 3/2/2012

www.unicef.org/india/concept-note-on participation accessed 3/2/2012

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Appendix

Hat para Dangi para Dharma para

Mission para Sapkhali Bheur Kunor

Male 51.41 51.52 50.66 51.61 51.91 56 48.42

Female 48.59 48.48 49.34 48.39 48.09 44 51.58

Hat para Dangi para

Dharma para

Mission para

Sapkhali Bheur Kunor

SC 80.79 42.42 100 22.58 86.34 91 75.79

ST 0 29.29 0 73.79 8.2 1 0

OBC 0 0 0 0 3.83 0 0

GEN 19.21 28.28 0 3.63 1.64 8 24.21

Hat para Dangi para Dharma para

Mission para

Sapkhali Bheur Kunor

Married 45.2 46.46 46.71 52.13 54.64 48.3 52.63

Single 49.15 49.49 50 41.13 40.44 47.3 43.63

Widow 4.52 4.04 3.2 4.44 4.92 4.37 3.68

Seperated 1.13 0 0 1.61 0 0.24 0

Mission para Dangipara Dharmapara

Male Female Male Female Male Female

Unemployed 14.06 10.83 11.76 14.58 7.89 13.33

Housewife 0 34.17 0 33.33 0 13.33

Student 27.34 29.17 37.25 35.42 28.95 37.33

Working 58.59 25.83 50.98 16.67 63.16 36

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Bheur Hatpara Sapkhali Kunor

Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

Unemployed 9.5 10.44 5.49 9.3 6.32 11.36 11.96 14.29

Housewife 0 33.52 0 27.91 0 30.68 0 25.51

Student 28.7 29.67 38.46 39.53 28.42 27.27 25 32.65

Working 61.73 26.37 56.04 23.26 65.26 30.68 63.04 27.55

Bheur Dangipara

Source of income Percent Percent

FARMING 32.93 FARMING 60

HUSBANDRY 1.8 LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 5.71

LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 27.54 NON AGRI LABOUR 22.86

NON AGRI LABOUR 14.37 SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS 5.71

SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS

3.59 REGULAR GOVT EMPLOYEE 2.86

RENT/SHARE OF CROP FROM LAND 0.6 OTHERS 2.86

REGULAR GOVT EMPLOYEE 1.8

CONTRACT GOVT EMPLOYEE 1.8 Dharmapara

PVT PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEE 4.19 percent

PENSION 0.6 FARMING 8.57

BUSINESSMAN/TRADER/SHOPKEEPER 5.39 HUSBANDRY 1.43

OTHER MEANS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT

4.79 LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 61.43

OTHERS 0.6 NON AGRI LABOUR 4.29

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SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS 12.86

BUSINESSMAN/TRADER/SHOPKEEPER 4.29

OTHER MEANS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT 5.71

OTHERS 1.43

hat para Percent Kunor

FARMING 31.75 FARMING 20.93

HUSBANDRY 1.59 HUSBANDRY 3.49

LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 9.52 LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 34.88

SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS 31.75 NON AGRI LABOUR 10.47

REGULAR GOVT EMPLOYEE 1.59 SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS 3.49

CONTRACT GOVT EMPLOYEE 3.17 CONTRACT GOVT EMPLOYEE 2.33

PVT PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEE 6.35 PVT PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEE 2.33

BUSINESSMAN/TRADER/SHOPKEEPER 4.76 BUSINESSMAN/TRADER/SHOPKEEPER 17.44

OTHER MEANS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT 7.94 OTHER MEANS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT 3.49

OTHERS 1.59 OTHERS 1.16

Mission para Sapkhali

FARMING 40.63 FARMING 18.99

HUSBANDRY 2.08 HUSBANDRY 1.27

LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 32.29 LABOUR ON ELSE FIELD 39.24

NON AGRI LABOUR 7.29 NON AGRI LABOUR 20.25

SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS 1.04 SELF EMPLOYED HANDICRAFTS/LOOMS 3.8

REGULAR GOVT EMPLOYEE 4.17 CONTRACT GOVT EMPLOYEE 5.06

CONTRACT GOVT EMPLOYEE 1.04 PVT PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEE 6.33

PVT PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEE 3.13 BUSINESSMAN/TRADER/SHOPKEEPER 1.27

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PENSION 2.08 OTHER MEANS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT 2.53

BUSINESSMAN/TRADER/SHOPKEEPER 3.13 OTHERS 1.27

OTHER MEANS OF SELF EMPLOYMENT 2.08

OTHERS 1.04

Bheur Dangipara Dharmapara Hatpara

Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

Angwanwadi 8.04 9.44 9.8 10.42 13.16 10.81 16.67 3.53

Primary 19.64 14 19.68 20.83 13.16 21.62 21.11 14.12

Secondary 46.43 32 27.45 29.17 28.05 28.38 40 48.23

HS 7.59 2.78 5.88 0 3.95 1.35 7.76 3.53

Graduate 1.79 1.1 0 0 0 0 3.33 1.18

Illiterate 16.52 32.22 27.45 39.58 40.79 37.84 11.11 29.18

Mission para

Sapkhali Kunor

Male Female Male Female Male Female

Angwanwadi 7.81 6.72 4.3 6.9 13.19 12.63

Primary 17.19 15.97 12.9 12.64 21.97 17.74

Secondary 36.72 33.61 48.39 33.63 35.67 36.84

HS 5.47 1.68 6.45 1.15 3.3 4.21

Graduate 1.56 0 1.08 0 3.3 1.05

Illiterate 31.25 42.02 26.88 43.69 23.08 30.53

NO OF GIRLS ATTENDING GOVT. PRE

S SCHOOL

Freq. Percent Cum. OF BOYS

ATTENDING

0 105 79.55 79.55 GOVT. PRE

1 22 16.67 96.21 SCHOOL Freq. Percent Cum.

2 4 3.03 99.24

3 1 0.76 100 0 108 73.97 73.97

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1 35 23.97 97.95

2 3 2.05 100