Women empowerment in Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab

Empowerment is the expansion of assets and capabilities of people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives. According to FAO the most disadvantaged section of the society is woman, they are the ‘silent majority’ of the world's poor. Seventy per cent world's poor are women and they face peculiar social, cultural, educational, political and allied problems. Hence empowerment of women of any flock is critical not only for their welfare but also for the development of the country. The aim of forest development agencies is to empower local people especially women for their active participation as partner in the management of forest resources and sharing the benefits derived from its protection and management as they are the primary users of forests. Thus the study was conducted in 9 Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) of Himachal Pradesh and 5 FDAs of Punjab. Women in three age groups viz 0–35 yrs (young age group), 35–55 yrs (middle age group) and >55 yrs (old age group) were interrogated regarding their socio-personal characteristics, socio-economic characteristics, index of verifiers for empowerment and empowerment index. The involvement of middle aged, illiterate and economically poor women is more in forestry activities. Maximum empowerment of women is shown by their participation in planning, implementation, maintenance and representation in committees by gender and economically classes which is the main criteria of empowerment. Overall empowerment index was 54.34 per cent in HP and 26.56 per cent in Punjab which is not very encouraging. On the basis of classification and analysis of FDAs it was concluded that the women in HP were more empowered as compared to its adjoining state of Punjab.