Economic Empowerment of Rural Women through Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Assam

Women empowerment is a process in which women gain greater share of control over different types of resources. Exposure of women to different technology and skill development programmes such as vocational training may expedite the process of empowerment by enabling them to generate income. The present study attempts to explore impact of vocational trainings conducted by the Krishi Vigyan Kendras on economic empowerment of the women including level of income, their control over income including expenditure, savings pattern, access to credit, and improvement in the standard of living. One hundred fifty respondents who had participated in vocational trainings conducted by different KVKs were selected as participant respondents and another set of 150 respondents were selected as control group for the study. The study reveals that after the training, around 19.00 per cent participant respondents had newly started earning and their average income increased by Rs. 1630.33. The saving habit of the participant respondents improved considerably while compared to non-participant respondents. A large majority of participant respondents had bank account on their own name and became knowledgeable on operation of bank account after the selected period. Fifty two per cent participant respondents fall in the high level of economic empowerment whereas among the nonparticipant respondents highest percentage i.e. 56.00 per cent fall in medium level of economic empowerment. This reflects significant impact of KVK vocational trainings on economic empowerment of rural women.