Women’s participation in frontier livelihood: option of livestock rearing in West Bengal

Women’s typical role within a livestock production system is different from region to region, and the distribution of ownership of livestock between men and women is strongly related to social, cultural and economic factors. Generally, it depends on the type of animals they raise. Based on the study it was seen that Farmwomen’s participation was seen highest in sowing, weeding and nipping/ picking and threshing. Farmwomen took a self-decision for decoration of house and selection and preparation of food in case of home management. Farm management was dominated by husband decision and majority of the farm management decision was taken by their husbands, animal husbandry management was completely dominated by women’s self decision. The relationship between independent variables like caste, land holding, family education status, economic status, house type, material possession, utilization pattern of communication channel, animal population, constraint based enterprise performance, performance in livelihood activity based on perceived problem, scientific orientation and farm implement in crop husbandry was observed positively significant. The paper emphasizes the importance of exploring alternate employment and income generating activities such as animal husbandry in order to improve the socio economic conditions of these women since the family background variables have a vital role in the development of personality traits in children which could affect quality of human capital in the future generation of the district.